Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers suffered yet another loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Playing against his former team, Russ actually put on a better performance and kept the Lakers in the game for the longest time.
Westbrook scored 27 points, and had a decent shooting night from the three-point line, going 3-6 on the night. But his scoring, alongside Anthony Davis’ 29 points and Carmelo Anthony’s 21 points off the bench was not enough for the Lakers to get the win.
Despite Russ’ solid performances, he performed poorly during the final moments of the game. With less than 30 seconds to go, the Lakers were behind by two. Russ took the ball up the court and wanted to drive to the hoop. But he turned the ball over, costing the Lakers a costly possession (4:08 in the video below).
On top of that, Russ took the final shot for the Lakers when they were down by 3. Despite having a decent night from the three-point line, he missed the last-second shot and wasn’t able to get the Lakers a win.
Lakers fans were not happy with Westbrook. While some other fans on Reddit made fun of Westbrook’s turnover, some of them were frustrated with the way Russ recklessly turned the ball over during a crucial part of the game.
On top of that, Frank Vogel was unhappy with the shot that Westbrook took in the final seconds of the game. So much so, that after the game, he mentioned that the Lakers wanted to take a better shot, perhaps from a more reliable three-point shooter in hopes to tie the game.
Frank Vogel says they wanted to get a better shot at the end of the game than what Russell Westbrook settled for.
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) November 5, 2021
Russ did have his reasons for taking the shot, with a ticking clock, and the fact that he had a decent night from the three-point line. In fact, Russ’ performance yesterday means that he is having a better three-point shooting season right now than players like Trae Young, Luka Doncic, and Bradley Beal.
After the game, Russ seemingly was frustrated to answer questions about the turnover and the missed shot, and seemingly gave a curt response to the reporter asking him the question, saying “don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to?”.
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) November 5, 2021
Now, the Lakers will be hoping to bounce back, and move forward with their title charge this season. The Lakers would hope that these losses are nothing more than growing pains and that they can eventually find a good run of form.
