LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers finally got back to winning ways last night, defeating the Utah Jazz at home. It was a starkly different performance from the Lakers compared to their play during their losing streak, as the Lakers looked hungry and motivated on the defensive end of the court.
One player who put up significantly better numbers last night was Russell Westbrook. While his performance was by no means extraordinary, even compared to some of his best in his career, Russ played well and came up big for the Lakers in key moments. One of these moments came in the dying seconds of the game.
In the final minute of the Lakers’ game against the Jazz, Los Angeles had a marginal lead over Utah. With the ball in his hand, Westbrook drove to the basket and made an incredibly tough lay-up, while also drawing contact. The ball went in and Westbrook even earned a trip to the free-throw line to seal the game.
LeBron James was thrilled to see this, as he cheered on Russell Westbrook as he danced and celebrated, and gave him props and motivation before Westbrook stepped across to the free-throw line. James was hyped as Westbrook helped win the game and get a measure of payback on the doubters at the same time.
This wasn’t the only big moment from Russ that had LeBron James stunned. Westbrook had an incredible posterizing dunk on reigning Defensive Player Of The Year Rudy Gobert during the game, and a close-up of LeBron’s face while the dunk was happening shows just how impressed he was.
Lakers fans were thrilled to see their team bounce back, with some even calling it their best win this season. James had apologized to the fanbase after their last game against the Nuggets. And he spoke after the game about how he felt that the team needed to showcase their energy. Now the big task for the Lakers is performing like this on a consistent basis.
