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Los Angeles Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook was taken out after suffering a hamstring injury against Sacramento Kings. Westbrook was introduced off the bench at the Golden 1 Center but was taken out moments later. The former NBA MVP was not in a starting role for the first time since 2008.
At the 7:30 mark of the first quarter, Westbrook was brought on as the sixth man but just after five minutes, he couldn’t continue because of the hamstring issue. In his time on the court, the 33-year-old was held to zero points as he missed two three-pointers and committed one turnover. But interestingly, Westbrook was paired up with LeBron James which certainly raised a few eyebrows.
Last season, the Lakers suffered from a problem of spacing as two out of their three stars aren’t bankable shooters and hit threes on a consistent click. The spacing issue also led to the congestion of lanes which restricted the Lakers 'Big Three' from driving at the basket on their will. Another key reason for the Lakers’ woes was the ball-handling issue when both James and Westbrook played together.
Both these players have carved out stellar careers by handling the ball majority of the time but when you have LeBron James on your team, he is the certified ball-handler on the team. Hence Russell Westbrook, without the ball, became a burden as he couldn’t offer a lot of versatility off the ball.
So, the former UCLA alumni coming off the bench made a lot more sense as it would free up the offence for LeBron and AD while giving Westbrook the regions of the second unit to keep the pressure on when other star players are resting. But throwing all the technical issues aside, the Lakers still need to work on resolving their biggest problem from last season which is health.
The Lake Show was riddled with injuries for the majority of the last season, hindering the team's chemistry. The severity of the injury isn't revealed yet, but this adds to the already long injury list the Lakers are carrying which includes Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker IV, Troy Brown Jr. and Dennis Schroder who missed the fixture against the Kings.
