The Lakers suffered a tough loss on Friday night in Game 3 of their first-round series with the Timberwolves, outscored by a 13-1 margin to close the game with a 116-104 score.
After the game, one of the players who appeared to be taking blame was starting center Jaxson Hayes, who has not been a factor in the series to this point. Hayes played nine minutes, and has logged only 26 minutes in three games. He has gone 2-for-6 shooting from the floor, and scored just four points with five rebounds and one blocked shot.
Hayes has had an erratic season with the Lakers, but became a much-needed commodity on a roster that was desperately lacking in size after the trade of Anthony Davis to the Mavericks for star guard Luka Doncic. The Lakers have made Hayes their starting center in 35 games, and have gone 26-9 in those games.But Hayes has not had a role in the series with the Timberwolves, and there have been calls for the team to bench him. Coach JJ Redick is considering that option.
While Hayes has been the taking the brunt of criticism for what ails the Lakers, the team’s problems go well beyond him. When star forward LeBron James was asked about the performance of Hayes against Minnesota, then, he came to the big man’s defense.
We all just got to be better,” James said. “Obviously, Jaxson’s not getting—I mean, he’s not, tonight he played eight minutes. It’s not enough to kind of dissect, to see what we can get out of it. But we all just need to be better. We got to rebound better, we got to screen better, we got to play with more force.
When we’ve been really, really good, Jax has played extremely well for us and we still believe in him and hope we can continue that going into the rest of the series.”
Hayes averaged 7.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 72.9% shooting in the regular season as the Lakers’ starter. He might lose that role in the playoffs, though. The Lakers will play again on Sunday in Game 4 in Minnesota as they try to avoid a 3-1 hole in the series.
