Russell Westbrook has been a mistake for the Los Angeles Lakers. While this might be an extremely harsh assessment of the matter, it is unequivocally true. Westbrook has not lived up to the hype whatsoever, and there are some nights where he looks like a shell of his former self. Saturday night was one of those times as the Lakers superstar was benched in overtime against the New York Knicks.
Going into the overtime frame, Westbrook had just five points on 1-10 shooting, which is truly abysmal. In the end, the Lakers won, which is all that mattered to Russ. When asked about the ordeal by ESPN, Russ said “The best part of this game is that you win. Guys competed. We won the game and that’s all that matters.”
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After the showing, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel spoke out about Westbrook’s benching, noting that the star’s lackluster fourth quarter helped lead to the decision to bench him.
“That [fourth quarter] stretch was part of it,” Vogel said. “I think obviously Russ was having a tough night on both sides of the ball and Bron was really going. So I knew the ball was going to be in Bron’s hands and I felt like we were going to get more from a defensive perspective and off-ball action with Talen, so … you just make tough decisions in the spirit of whatever the team needs to win a game.”
Moving forward, the Lakers have some big decisions to make regarding this roster. Russ has not been the guy they hoped he would be, and with the trade deadline looming, a move might be the only option in fixing this team’s problems.
[Via]