LOS ANGELES – During the Los Angeles Lakers’ 117-116 loss to the Sacramento Kings during their final preseason game, reserve big man Jaxson Hayes exited early after he suffered a wrist injury. After the game, Lakers coach JJ Redick revealed that X-rays came back negative but that he wouldn’t have a definitive update until practice over the weekend.

Following Lakers’ practice on Sunday, Jaxson Hayes beat Redick to the punch in revealing his injury status for the team’s season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.

“I’m good, it was a light sprain in the wrist, but I’ll be good for Tuesday,” Hayes said. “I just fell and I tried to catch myself and messed up this little sprain. Being a dummy, I shouldn’t have tried to catch myself, I should’ve just fallen. It’s natural to do but it’s not a good thing to do. You’re most likely going to hurt your wrist nine times out of ten if you try to catch yourself falling.”

Hayes initially suffered the injury after he caught a lob pass from Luka Doncic and was fouled on the play resulting in an and-one. He missed the free-throw badly due to the injury, and was ruled out following halftime. Last season, Hayes developed strong chemistry with Doncic in the pick and roll as a rolling lob threat.

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Hayes filled in well as the Lakers’ starting center following the Anthony Davis trade, but he was ultimately benched in the playoffs as Redick opted to go with a smaller lineup during the team’s opening round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The way things ended last season, it was a little surprising that Hayes returned to the Lakers, but the seven-year veteran opted to re-sign with the organization on a one-year contract. Hayes cited conversations with Redick as being a deciding factor in his decision to come back.

“Me and JJ had a bunch of talks, we talked it through, we got through that obviously, obviously I’m gonna support him no matter what. It’s really just more of a chip on my shoulder than anything,” Hayes said. “He just told me he was sorry, and that’s what he wanted to do. That’s the lineup they all talked about, the coaches talked about. I respected that.”

During Hayes’ time as a starter last season, he appeared in 35 games and averaged 7.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists with splits of 72.9 percent shooting from the field and 55.6 percent shooting from the free-throw line.