It’s no secret that Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook is having a difficult first season with the team.
It seems like nothing has gone right for him during the 2021-22 campaign.
During the Lakers’ most recent game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Westbrook got clowned for airballing a shot.
KAT's reaction to Westbrook's airball 👀 pic.twitter.com/k2j4cBiVPL
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 17, 2022
At another point during the game, Wolves guard Patrick Beverley, who has a pretty heated rivalry with Westbrook, called the Lakers “trash.”
Patrick Beverley calls the Lakers trash, then plugs his nose 😂 pic.twitter.com/ORTZ3Yjq9N
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) March 17, 2022
During a recent episode of his podcast, ESPN’s Zach Lowe revealed that he doesn’t think he’s ever seen a player of Westbrook’s caliber endure as much “targeted humiliation” during one game from an opponent as the Lakers star did during that game.
“I’m still reeling from how much s— they talked at the Lakers’ expense,” said Lowe. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player of Russell Westbrook’s caliber endure so much targeted humiliation at one game from an opponent as he did in Minnesota last night, with Pat Bev holding his nose and calling him trash, with Karl-Anthony Towns spending nine seconds pantomiming searching for a breeze or some other reason Russ airballed the jumper. It wasn’t a quick pantomime. Sometimes you see players duck and cover on the bench for a second. Karl Towns went in a full-on SNL routine at Russ’ expense.”
This surely isn’t the type of campaign the Lakers were hoping to have. Going into the season, they undoubtedly had aspirations of winning their second title in three seasons after being eliminated by the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2021 playoffs.
Currently, the Lakers sit in ninth place in the Western Conference with an abysmal 29-40 record. The only reason they continue to cling onto a spot in the league’s play-in tournament is because teams below them in the standings continue to perform poorly.
If squads like the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs string together some wins and Los Angeles continues to falter, the Lakers could end up missing out on the play-in tournament completely. That would add insult to injury.
Westbrook and the Lakers look like they are going to try to part ways after the conclusion of the campaign. That seems like the best move for both parties.
So far this season, the former MVP has averaged 17.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game.
L.A.’s next game is against the Toronto Raptors on the road on Friday.
