Stop if you’ve heard this before, but the Lakers had someone in the dunk contest put up a dud.
Jaxson Hayes competed in Saturday’s Dunk Contest at All-Star weekend and in a move that probably shouldn’t have been shocking given the history of Lakers competing in the event, it was a very underwhelming showing.
Hayes’ first dunk of the day was…interesting. After starting way in the backcourt, he miscalculated something along the way and just…did a basic dunk?
His timing clearly was off and based on the run up, it’s probably safe to assume he was going for a free throw line dunk, which he missed by some distance. Unsurprisingly, he got the lowest score in the first round at 44.6 — the average of the five scores from the judges — which meant he was the first dunker of round two.
This dunk was better, as he went between the legs after tapping the ball to himself.
That one earned him a more respectable score of 47.2, but his complete dud in the first round kept him from moving on to the finals.
Maybe let’s stop putting Lakers in the dunk contest anymore.
Keshad Johnson of the Heat went on to win the event. Carter Bryant of the Spurs finished second while Jase Richardson of the Magic missed out on the finals with Hayes.
Earlier in the afternoon, Damian Lillard came away victorious in the first event of the night in the 3-point contest despite not playing this season due to a torn Achilles. He beat out Kon Knueppel from the Hornets and Devin Booker from the Suns, the latter of whom choked down the stretch.
The Shooting Stars event, Team Knicks of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and Allan Houston came away victorious in a pretty exciting contest.
They beat out Team Cameron — comprised of Duke players — in the final. Despite having Knueppel and Jalen Johnson on the team, Corey Maggette carried them in the final and nearly won the whole dang thing.
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