**BREAKING: Jaxson Hayes Avoids Serious Knee Injury, Already Mastering Luka Dončić’s Wizardry – Lakers’ Big Man Returns to Practice in Full**
*By Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times*
*November 26, 2025 – EL SEGUNDO, Calif.*
In a massive sigh of relief for the Los Angeles Lakers, center Jaxson Hayes has dodged a potentially season-altering injury and is already back at full practice just 72 hours after hyperextending his left knee in Monday night’s 118-105 rout of the Detroit Pistons.
An MRI performed Tuesday morning at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic revealed only a mild bone bruise and minor swelling in the knee joint – no structural damage to the ACL, MCL, meniscus, or patellar tendon. The Lakers officially listed Hayes as “day-to-day” with an optimistic return window of Thursday’s home matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers.
“It’s a Thanksgiving miracle,” Hayes said Wednesday, grinning while catching lobs from Luka Dončić during a lively shootaround. “I thought it was gone when I landed. Felt like my knee touched the floor behind me. But God was looking out.”
The scare occurred with 4:12 remaining in the third quarter Monday when Hayes rose for one of his trademark alley-oop finishes off a Dončić pocket pass. As he came down, Pistons forward Tobias Harris crashed into Hayes’ landing space, forcing the 6-foot-11 center’s left leg to buckle awkwardly. Hayes immediately grabbed the knee and limped to the locker room as the Crypto.com Arena crowd fell silent.
Head coach JJ Redick, visibly shaken on the sideline, admitted postgame that the team feared the worst. “When you see a guy that explosive go down like that, you immediately flash to the worst-case scenario,” Redick said. “We’ve already lost Jarred Vanderbilt for the season. Losing Jax would have been catastrophic.”
It would have been. In 19 games this season (14 starts), the 25-year-old Hayes has transformed from a polarizing role player into one of the NBA’s most improved bigs, averaging 11.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.1 blocks, and – most shockingly – finishing 78.4% of his attempts at the rim, the highest mark among all centers with at least 100 paint touches, per Cleaning the Glass.
The secret? Luka Dončić.
Since the blockbuster February 2025 trade that sent Anthony Davis to Dallas and brought Dončić to Hollywood, Hayes has become the primary beneficiary of the Slovenian superstar’s gravity-defying vision. Dončić already leads the league with 11.4 assists per game, and no one has cashed in more than Hayes, who has attempted 112 lobs this season – 38 more than any other Laker.
“Jaxson is learning how to run with Luka’s mind,” Dončić said Wednesday, laughing as he flicked no-look bounce passes between cones to a sprinting Hayes. “He’s starting to leave early now. That’s the key. With me, you can’t wait for the ball to come out of my hand. You gotta trust it’s coming.”
The numbers back up the chemistry. When Hayes and Dončić share the floor, the Lakers score 138.2 points per 100 possessions in the half-court – an absurd figure that ranks in the 99th percentile league-wide. Hayes’ offensive rating jumps from 118.9 without Dončić to 141.6 with him.
“Early in the year I was late on everything,” Hayes admitted. “Luka would throw it and I’d still be standing under the rim like ‘Where’s the ball?’ Now I’m reading his eyes. When he looks at the corner for half a second, I know it’s coming back to me. It’s like playing with a cheat code.”
The adaptation has been physical as well as mental. Hayes spent the entire offseason adding 18 pounds of muscle – now listed at a chiseled 245 – specifically to handle the pounding of vertical spacing next to Dončić and LeBron James. Strength coach Tim DiFrancesco says Hayes can now hang in the air an extra 0.4 seconds on jump attempts, the difference between a contested finish and a poster.
Defensively, the improvements are equally stark. After posting a 103.8 defensive rating in New Orleans last season, Hayes sits at 99.4 with the Lakers, routinely switching onto guards and erasing drives with his 7-foot-3 wingspan. Redick has even experimented with Hayes as a small-ball five in “Death Lineup” units alongside Dončić, James, Austin Reaves, and Dalton Knecht.
“People forget he’s still only 25,” Redick said. “He’s basically in his rookie year with us. The ceiling is stupid high.”
Wednesday’s practice offered the clearest evidence yet that the injury scare is already ancient history. Hayes threw down seven windmill dunks in transition drills, rejected three Dončić floaters at the rim, and even knocked down a corner three in a scrimmage – prompting LeBron to yell, “Who are you, and what have you done with Jaxson Hayes?!”
The Lakers, currently 12-7 and holding the No. 4 seed in the West, can ill afford to lose their vertical threat. With Vanderbilt out for the year following Achilles surgery and Christian Wood still working back from knee issues, Hayes is the only true rim-runner on the roster capable of punishing double-teams on Dončić and James.
“Jaxson is our X-factor,” James said after practice. “When he’s rolling to the rim and finishing above everybody, it makes everything easier. We need him healthy. Period.”
Hayes, ever the optimist, plans to play Thursday against Portland and has no intention of wearing a knee brace long-term.
“I’m good,” he said, tapping the left knee that just scared an entire fanbase. “Luka already told me he’s got 20 assists with my name on them. I’m not missing that party.”
If the past three days are any indication, the Lakers’ new high-flying duo is just getting started – and the league is officially on notice.
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