The Los Angeles Lakers suffered the 5th loss of the 2021/22 NBA season against the Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers dominated them at Moda Center, taking advantage of an Anthony Davis, LeBron James-less team that couldn’t get things going during the entire match.
Russell Westbrook earned a lot of criticism for his performance on Saturday night. Brodie went 1-13 from the field, recording six turnovers and simply playing badly. This comes after Westbrook made terrible turnovers against the Oklahoma City Thunder and missed a clutch shot vs. his former team.
After the game was over, Carmelo Anthony reacted to this situation, admitting the Lakers didn’t play as expected, which cost them the win.
“I think for the most part tonight we didn’t play basketball… We didn’t play hard.”
Moreover, he talked about Westbrook, stating that the player will eventually figure things out and show why the Lakers traded for him in the offseason. The future Hall of Famer still hopes that Brodie will recover his level and contribute to this team.
“We’ve seen him in some games that we had at home, we’ve seen him fit right in, we’ve seen him lead the charge, we’ve seen him do what he do,” Anthony said postgame. “He’s in attack mode. We’ve seen nights where he hasn’t been that. That’s just the give and take with Russ.
“Throughout his whole career he’s always figured it out, he’s always figured it out how to adapt how to make adjustments, what he has to do personally physically, mentally. We can’t control that. That’s something that he controls. Only he knows what he has to do. We got to be there just to support him. And that’s what we will do.”
"I think for the most part tonight we didn't play basketball… We didn't play hard." @carmeloanthony on tonight's loss. pic.twitter.com/a0RoUTx9iw
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 7, 2021
The Lakers are without LeBron and Anthony Davis now, and Westbrook is expected to lead them while they aren’t available. So far, he’s struggled to show his talents, but Melo thinks it’s a matter of time before we see Westbrook’s best form again.
He’s an MVP, he played well last season and was the reason why the Washington Wizards made the playoff at the last second. Perhaps he needs some time before finding his touch and unleashing all his power with the Lakers.
