{"id":604366,"date":"2026-02-15T10:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604366\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T10:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:05:18","slug":"lakers-jaxson-hayes-falls-short-in-slam-dunk-contest-at-intuit-dome-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604366\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers&#8217; Jaxson Hayes falls short in slam dunk contest at Intuit Dome"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Brief<\/p>\n<p>Lakers center Jaxson Hayes competed in the Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Saturday at the Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n<p>Hayes scored 44.6 in the first round and improved to 47.2 in the second round.<\/p>\n<p>Despite strong performances, he was eliminated and did not advance to the final round.<\/p>\n<p>INGLEWOOD, Calif. &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/tag\/sports\/nba\/lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Laker;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Los Angeles Laker<\/a>s center Jaxson Hayes took flight during the Slam Dunk Contest at NBA All-Star Weekend on Saturday night at the Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n<p>What we know<\/p>\n<p>After the 3-Point Contest and Shooting Stars event, All-Star Saturday concluded with the Slam Dunk Contest.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Hayes was the final participant in the first round, following Keshad Johnson, who energized the crowd by bringing out Bay Area rapper E-40.<\/p>\n<p>Using his explosive vertical, Hayes threw down a powerful one-handed slam that earned a score of 44.6 from judges Dr. J, Dwight Howard, Corey Maggette and Dominique Wilkins.<\/p>\n<p>In the second round, Hayes improved with a 47.2. However, it wasn\u2019t enough to advance, as he fell short of Johnson and San Antonio\u2019s Carter Bryant.<\/p>\n<p>The dancing and star power paid off for Johnson, who was crowned the league&#8217;s best dunker.<\/p>\n<p>What they&#8217;re saying<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old center said competing in the Dunk Contest was a childhood dream.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For me, I\u2019ve always dreamed of being in the dunk contest,&#8221; Hayes said. &#8220;I was always big into the dunk contest \u2014 if you can\u2019t tell by the way I play. So when I got the call, I was definitely down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>PREVIOUS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/sports\/lakers-jaxson-hayes-slam-dunk-contest-2026-nba-all-star-game\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Lakers\u2019 Jaxson Hayes to compete in slam dunk contest;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Lakers\u2019 Jaxson Hayes to compete in slam dunk contest<\/a><\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s next<\/p>\n<p>The 75th NBA All-Star Game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Lakers center Jaxson Hayes competed in the Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Saturday at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,978,12879,1676,37422,32,1248,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6,12398,969,9672],"class_list":{"0":"post-604366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-carter-bryant","10":"tag-corey-maggette","11":"tag-dwight-howard","12":"tag-intuit","13":"tag-jaxson-hayes","14":"tag-keshad-johnson","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-lakers","17":"tag-lakers","18":"tag-lalakers","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-losangeleslakers","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-nba-all-star-weekend","25":"tag-san-antonio","26":"tag-slam-dunk-contest"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116074088097691526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}