Lakers guard Russell Westbrook was back in the starting lineup for the team’s regular season opener on Tuesday after playing a reserve role in last Friday’s preseason finale and leaving after just five minutes of action due to a hamstring strain. Asked on Tuesday whether coming off the bench may have been a factor in injuring his hamstring, Westbrook didn’t hesitate to draw a link between the two.
“Absolutely. I’ve been doing the same thing for 14 years straight,” Westbrook said, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. “Honestly, I didn’t know what to do pregame, I was trying to stay warm and loose.
“I felt something, didn’t know what it was. Wasn’t gonna risk it in a preseason game. But definitely wasn’t something I was used to. Wasn’t warm enough. It was something I wasn’t accustomed to.”
Westbrook has started over 1,000 regular season games since last coming off the bench as a rookie in 2008. While he has spoken publicly about embracing whatever role new head coach Darvin Ham asks him to play, it sounds like he’s still not enthusiastic about the idea of not being part of the starting five.
It’s possible the concept of bringing Westbrook off the bench is one the Lakers will revisit in the coming days, weeks, or months following the aborted experiment last Friday. But Ham spoke before Tuesday’s game about wanting to establish a consistent starting lineup, as ESPN’s Dave McMenamin relays.
“We don’t want to be one of those teams,” he said, “where teams are swaying according to who their opponent is starting.”
Here’s more on the Lakers, who dropped their first game of the regular season on Tuesday in Golden State:
- The Lakers’ Big Three of Westbrook, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis combined for 77 points on Tuesday, but they made just 4-of-16 three-pointers, and the rest of the team was no better from distance. After facing some criticism for not prioritizing outside shooting in free agency, the Lakers made just 10-of-40 threes on the night. “I think we got great looks, but it also could be teams giving us great looks,” James said, according to Goodwill. “To be completely honest, we’re not a team that’s constructed of great shooting. Truth of matter is not like you know, we (have) a lot of lasers on our team. We’re not sitting here with a bunch of 40-plus (percent) career 3-point shooting guys.”
- The 2022/23 season represents a fork in the road for Davis, contends Jovan Buha of The Athletic. As Buha outlines, there’s a general consensus within the organization that Davis’ success this season will determine the Lakers’ success, so if he can stay healthy and have a big year, he can re-establish himself as one of the game’s top players after a couple disappointing, injury-plagued seasons.
- In case you missed it, two projected Lakers rotation players – Dennis Schröder and Thomas Bryant – each underwent thumb surgery and will miss the first few weeks of the season.
The Lakers have been a hot mess every year with LeBron except the “Bubble” year when they won the title.
They continue to be a hot mess again this year. Why is it so hard to find guys who can shoot the basketball???
I read that Westbrook, Horton Tucker and picks proposed for Irving, Seth Curry and Harris
Lakers say no because of tax
Nets say no because that would be phenomenally stupid.
NETS SAYS NO NOT THE LAKERS
LeBron James and Anthony Davis got the Los Angeles Lakers a championship!!!! That’s not a easy task. They was never supposed to give up JaVale McGee Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Kyle Kuzma or Alex Caruso. They should’ve kept them guys. They brought everything the Lakers are missing. Defense defense defense defense and perimeter shooting.
They would’ve had to replace Danny Green Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard but that wouldn’t been hard. You don’t blow up no team that wins a championship.
Even though they lost. I like what I seen from Anthony Davis LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. Then the supporting cast. I think they will be solid if healthy.
That title has a huge asterisk due to the Covid bubble.
Lakers’ hotel restaurant better than the others?
Yes, the asterisc of losing home court advantage every round of their Playoffs run, while being the 1# seed in the west.
Get out of here with that mess. There was a huge debate in the mlb section about if the dodgers 2020 win should count. They all count people. The players played the games by the same rules everyone had a fair chance and the lakers handled business. I’m not a fan of any la team but come on give credit where credit is due
One exception, the 2017 Astros should have an asterisk.
I don’t know why people say that title has an asterisks. Every other team competed with the same circumstances. I’d love to hear an explanation for this.
Lakers won, End of story.
It’s not about that season, it’s about that season compared to others. Anyone who won would have had an exception. Just like a complete 7 inning MLB game with no hits allowed was not counted as a no-hitter. It is not the same accomplishment.
Everyone had the same rules so no asterisk necessary. Should put asterisks next teams with guys who snuck out of the bubble to go to strip clubs.
The Lakers lack of shooting makes it very easy for opponents to take away their strengths offensively.
Really? Does it affect their scoring in other ways too?
I am happy to see
Westbrook is playing good basketball
The tech he picked up for slapping the basketball on the Warriors inbound was not good basketball. It was childish.
So now it’s clear that he was pouting and faked the injury so he could leave the game. What a punk. Trade him!
I can’t belive that he really link the injury and coming off the bench… the man is getting more delusional every day
Westbrook is the biggest loser!
Even though they lost last night, he went home happy bragging about hus double double stats. Lol!!!
One thing i noticed about the lakers last night is how LeBron is not a good defensive player anymore. He was invisible on defense. This has to do with 2 factors age is catching up to him and playing way too many minutes. He was coasting on defense last night. Ham needs to keep LeBron at about 32 minutes a game. They need to conserve his minutes or by mid season he will be burned out or injured.
Lebron has been selective on defense for years now, he still turns it up a couple notches when it matters. The problem with that is I don’t think it’s going to matter all that often this season because outside of LeBron himself, Davis and an incompatible Westbrook the team is awful. That have no supporting cast.
Different coach same problem. Playing AD and LeBron too many minutes. He needs to trust his bench. How can they get better if they don’t play a lot. AD tired out in the second half.
Anthony Davis also not nearly as good defensively.
Let’s face it. The other thing keeping the Lakers from a title is greed. LeBron is already a billionaire on paper. Why not play for the minimum and use the $40+ million to sign guys for a title run???
The “real” secret sauce to Tom Brady and the Patriots was that he played for a huge discount. Pats used the money to fill hole and stay in title contention. Brady did the rest.
Because nobody else in the league does that… and nobody in the league has to do that. Hilarious that you’re tossing blame on Brons contract and not the almost 50 million Russ is getting to get empty stats.
Btw Brady never took the minimum chief. A discount sure but you need to go back and look at the numbers
LeBron took a huge pay cut just to come play for the Lakers. He could’ve resigned for a 5 year supermax similar to Curry’s contract then forced a trade. He did the same when he went Miami and the same when he went back to Cleveland.
They guess that Brady after his first extension that Brady left about $60 million on the table. That’s not an insignificant sum but spread out over 15 years it’s not really that much of a pay cut. He restructured his contract every year for more money guaranteed and a bigger bonus. Sure it helped the club out but in the NFL contracts are rarely played out. He traded long term money for short term security.
You could also flip this point to say that the Lakers don’t spend as much as the Warriors.
I said this after last night game . Why were we trying to out warrior the warriors. We aren’t a 3 point shooting team. We have to stick with what we are good at . We need to shot the mid , attack the basket and fast break. If we do that . I think we have a chance every game . If we try to do something we aren’t like shoot a bunch of 3 we will lose a lot of games
The Lakers lost last night because GS has players that can make shots and the Lakers only have players that layup.
Stop jacking 40 3’s if you KNOW your team can’t sustain that.
AD needs to stop falling down every possession, it’s no wonder he is always injured. Stay on your feet dude.
P.S. the refs were pretty bad last night too. Not an excuse, but c’mon.
Imagine if the lakers spend money like the warriors does to retain their players? KCP, caruso, kuzma, mcgee should all been retained, imo!