The good news for the Los Angeles Lakers is the Los Angeles Lakers won on Saturday .
They were down by as much as 21 points to the New York Knicks , allowed 71 points in the first half and needed 40 minutes from LeBron James in his first game back from a knee issue to escape, but they won.And because they won, they avoided a longer journey in their inevitable journey back to .500, which has been the flow of their entire season.
Even with that win, Russell Westbrook , the team’s big acquisition last summer, the player who was supposed to put the team back on top in the West and be the latest star to find success alongside James, still drew scrutiny.
In fact, the Lakers can only hope Saturday is the low point for Westbrook, because you didn’t need his seemingly weekly appointment as Twitter’s most criticized basketball player to see a brutal night for a player who could be charitably described as polarizing.
Russell Westbrook’s bad, bad night There was, of course, his stats.Five points on 1-of-10 shooting, with six assists, four rebounds and four turnovers.The Lakers were outscored by 15 points when he was on the court, while outscoring the Knicks by 12 points when James was on the court.
There was the Staples Center Crypto.com Arena crowd finding a way to move past your standard booing of a player having a cold stretch, as happened when Westbrook somehow managed to miss the rim on a mid-range bank shot.
Westbrook shanks another banker, now getting booed by home crowd.pic.twitter.com/4XishaS3c9
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 6, 2022
No, the bigger indication of just how little Lakers fans think of Westbrook at this point came in the final minutes of regulation, when Westbrook got the ball in the corner while holding a six-point lead.
As the veteran squared up to shoot, several fans could be heard audibly wincing, like a movie theater crowd watching a teenager enter a monster’s lair.
Story continues Westbrook missed the resulting 3-point shot, but had Anthony Davis save the day with a rebound and put-back and-1.
Just one of the most surreal moments of my time covering the Lakers.I can’t ever remember the fans begging a player not to shoot like this pic.twitter.com/68NwIkDVMm
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) February 6, 2022
And worst of all — worse than his box score, worse than the fan’s treatment of him — there was Lakers head coach Frank Vogel showing what he thought of Westbrook’s play by keeping him on the bench for the entirety of overtime.
The postgame interviews were what you would expect, with Westbrook brushing off the boos and the benching while his teammates affirm their support for him , but it was hard to ignore the reality of the situation.Vogel just wants him to play better.
Frank Vogel on benching Russell Westbrook in OT: “Hopefully the response is that player plays better.”
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) February 6, 2022
It is at this point you might consider what the Lakers gave up for a player they apparently no longer trust to play in the most important minutes of the game.
In trading for him, they gave up Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope , two major contributors to their 2020 championship team, plus Montrezl Harrell and a first-round draft pick.They also paid the opportunity cost of not going after other players, like, say, Buddy Hield .And now they are paying Westbrook $44 million this season and are on the hook for $42 million more next season should he exercise his player option.
All of that sacrifice, and they now need him to play better.
Russell Westbrook hasn’t been what the Lakers were hoping.
(Photo by Kevin C.Cox/Getty Images) The Lakers need to figure out what they want from Russell Westbrook What’s amazing is all of this was predictable.
Westbrook has long been a lightning rod for criticism over his historically bad shooting numbers ( no player in NBA history has shot worse from 3-point range with as many attempts as him ).Take that player and put him on the Lakers , where a few bad games is all it takes to be the next Dennis Schroder, and you are signing up for nights like Saturday.
It shouldn’t be a surprise either that Westbrook entered Saturday with his lowest points per game since 2010 and plenty of other lackluster numbers.Putting him on a team where he is, at best, the secondary ball-handler in crunch time, was always going to mean compromises and hopes that he could be more efficient with fewer opportunities, which hasn’t happened.
But James reportedly wanted Westbrook, and so the Lakers got Westbrook, and now the Lakers may be stuck with Westbrook.
Unloading him on another team, a midseason retooling not seen on a James-led team since his last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, is going to be hard because of that contract.And any player the Lakers get back is probably going to have warts of his own.
So the Lakers’ best path forward seems to be keeping Westbrook and hoping he …changes.At 33 years old, in his 14th season in the league.Maybe that’s getting better at shooting, or just stop trying to shoot at all while focusing on facilitating, but where would that leave the former MVP in an offense that’s going to want LeBron James orchestrating the offense? There’s also the option that was presented Saturday, benching him for guys like Talen Horton-Tucker, who got Westbrook’s minutes in overtime.
None of this sounds particularly pleasant to figure out, and will probably require someone to swallow their pride if the team wants a chance at a deep playoff run..
