Although the Los Angeles Lakers fought hard on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Clippers, they just didn’t have enough to win, as they came up short by a final score of 103-97.
It was a very rough night for Russell Westbrook, yet LeBron James tried to be supportive of him during the postgame press conference by giving him some constructive advice.
LeBron's message to Russell Westbrook after tonight:
"Flush it down the toilet and get ready for Sunday. … I thought he played a great game. Defensively he was in tune."
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) October 21, 2022
Westbrook has been behind the eight ball for some time now, as he has been blamed for almost everything that has gone wrong with the team over the last 12 months.
He went 0-of-11 from the field and 0-of-6 from 3-point range on Thursday, and his shot selection was, at times, very questionable.
Shot selection and decision-making have been perhaps the two biggest issues for Westbrook. His aggressiveness and single-mindedness have made him into a future Hall of Famer, but they have also led to him taking bad shots at times.
In terms of 3-point shooting, he was far from the only culprit, as the Lakers shot 9-of-45 as a team from downtown and failed to show good discipline in terms of turning down quick, contested outside shots.
But one thing Westbrook did do a good job of was playing defense. He came up with five steals, which helped generate some easy baskets for the Lakers.
On back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter, he got steals on passes intended for Kawhi Leonard as the Lakers were fighting to stay in the contest.
All eyes will be on him for the rest of the season, or at least as long as he remains a member of the team.
