With the season on the brink of extinction, the Thunder put the Lakers out of their misery in Game 4 and advanced to the conference finals.
LA put up another valiant effort Monday, even nursing a one-point lead with 40 seconds remaining, but it wasn’t enough. OKC completed the sweep and bounced the purple and gold into the summer.
It’s one thing to lose all four matchups in the regular season, where game plans and lineups get adjusted by the hour. It’s another to stand side by side with the best team
in the league and measure the difference.
Those measurements came up immensely short, even after accounting for superstar Luka Dončić missing the entire series. While the result revealed the Lakers have a multitude of issues to resolve, none is more pressing than finding their franchise center.
Backup center Jaxson Hayes’ strong performance in Game 4 lends a blueprint to what the focus should be.
As he’s done on numerous occasions this season, Hayes closed the game and played more minutes than starter Deandre Ayton. Hayes had his best game of the series with 18 points, five rebounds, and a block in 27 minutes.
It’s no coincidence the Lakers had their shot to win when their best athlete had his most productive game, especially coming from the center position. Hayes is one of the few — and maybe the only — Lakers players who can overpower his matchup with pure above-the-rim athleticism.
Watch below as he sets a wide pin down for Austin Reaves with LeBron James as the entry passer. It sets up the empty side action, with Reaves quickly throwing up the lob to where only Hayes can reach.
The runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, Chet Holmgren, comes to contest, but it has no impact as Hayes finishes the thunderous dunk over the top.
Late in the third quarter, the Lakers ran their Finland action. Watch as Luke Kennard comes off the final screen of the play and finds Hayes rolling with the pocket pass. Holmgren once again comes over to recover, but Hayes has already gathered onto his trampoline.
The monster finish at the basket put the Lakers up by one. Hayes used his pogo stick bounce to finish four dunks on Monday.
Vertical spacing and an almost infinite catch radius will be essential skill sets for pairing with heavy pick-and-roll guards this summer. Luka and Reaves led the league as a duo in pick and rolls ran per game this season.
In addition to the dunk fest, Hayes leveraged his athletic prowess to grab three offensive rebounds, including one massive tip-in putback to end the third quarter.
On the defensive end, his lateral quickness on the perimeter fit into head coach JJ Redick’s switch-heavy defensive style, while still being able to block shots at the rim, as seen in the play below.
Ajay Mitchell pushes it in transition and gets it swatted while the Lakers get a basket from LeBron on a leak-out pass.
While he contains many of the skills LA will need in its franchise center, Hayes was on a $3.5 million deal this season. He may return to the team in a backup role once again, but he can’t be relied on as a starting center going forward and he still carries a shaky playoff history.
The center opposite the Lakers in this series was Isaiah Hartenstein, who is making $29 million this season. Their other main big is Holmgren, who just signed a $250 million extension last summer.
Canvassing the other playoff teams remaining, they all have a center making close to max money, or soon to be, with players such as Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs and Jalen Duren of the Pistons.
Finding the permanent solution at center should be at the top of the to-do list this summer. If they don’t, they will find themselves right back in this position again next season.
You can follow Raj on X at @RajChipalu
