'Mental breakdowns,' Jaxson Hayes reveals what went wrong vs. Denver

The Lakers haven't been able to get a win over the Denver Nuggets for the seventh consecutive time as they have lost again tonight. This time around, the Lakers had a 3-game winning streak before facing the contest and an extra inspiration after the unveiling of Kobe Bryant's statue, but were shorthanded.

D'Angelo Russell joined Jarred Vanderbilt, Cam Reddish, and Gabe Vincent to miss the game, but to make things worse, young guard Max Christie got hurt and had to leave the game before half-time due to an injury.

The center Jaxson Hayes gave a great performance, still, the team wasn't able to beat the NBA's reigning champions the Denver Nuggets. And Hayes said the Lakers had some "mental breakdowns" late and credited the Nuggets for capitalizing on their mistakes. Denver had a 10-2 run in the last two minutes of the contest.

Austin Reaves said that the Nuggets had run the same play a couple of times when he tried to take the ball off Jokic's hands, so he felt like he had the steal here. But Nikola gave a pass for the Nuggets to hit a key 3-pointer. Reaves says he will learn from it moving forward.

Darvin Ham wants his players to step up their game

Darvin Ham gave props to guys like Skylar Mays and Jaxson Hayes for their minutes but acknowledged that some of the other guys need to step up when key players are out with injuries.