Lakers C Jaxson Hayes (ankle) to be reevaluated in 1-2 weeks

LOS ANGELES — The Lakers’ already depleted front line just got a little thinner.

Backup center Jaxson Hayes suffered a left ankle sprain in practice Tuesday, the team announced. He sat out Wednesday night’s 128-123 win against the Memphis Grizzlies and will be reevaluated in 1-2 weeks.

“Honestly, a crazy play in practice was against coaches,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the Grizzlies game. “And he didn’t even land on an ankle… It was just an awkward kind of fall and an ankle rolled. There was no contact. I feel bad for Jaxson.”

Hayes arrived at the Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday in a walking boot. He told ESPN that the pain in his ankle had already begun to subside and hoped he could return on the shorter end of the estimated recovery timeline.

Hayes’ injury followed Redick saying Tuesday that another of LA’s backup big men, Christian Wood, suffered a setback while increasing his recovery from offseason surgery on his left knee and will sit out at least a month more.

Hayes was coming off one of his best games of the season, putting up 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting, 6 rebounds and 1 blocked shot while closing out LA’s win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday after Anthony Davis was stabbed in his left eye. and went out.

The Lakers outscored the Raptors by 21 in the 21 minutes Hayes was on the court.

With Hayes and Wood out, the Lakers’ roster has just one center besides Davis: two-way player Christian Koloko. The former second-round pick out of the University of Arizona sat out the 2023-24 season because of a blood clot issue.

Koloko saw 13 minutes of action against the Grizzlies and scored four points.

He has now played in four games since being cleared to return by the NBA’s “fitness to play” panel — three for the Lakers and one for the South Bay Lakers, the organization’s G League affiliate.

“We’re going to rely on Christian Koloko to fill those minutes and depending on the matchups, there may be opportunities to play small, but we’re very confident and comfortable with Christian,” Redick said Wednesday.