As the Lakers got their fifth straight L of the season, Russell Westbrook gets his first major victory – his first game without a negative plus/minus.
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LeBron James has made a career out of breaking and building an entire franchise on his own. The King has won with all three franchises that he has been in, at least one championship by doing exactly that.
After coming to LA he did the same and brought in Anthony Davis which worked a wonder in the first season where they won a championship.
For getting AD though, half of the Lakers’ young and talented stars went to the Pelicans including Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Josh Hart along with several first-round picks.
Fast forward two years, after a first-round exit from the Playoffs as defending champions, they traded away Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Montrzel Harrell along with a 2021 first-round pick to Washington Wizards for Russell Westbrook.
A year later nobody in LA wants the 9x All-Star to continue with the team. But time and time again he does something which makes some of them wonder can this work? He did the same on Friday.
Russell Westbrook gets his personal best game in a conundrum
Amid a disastrous start to the season, the LA team visited Target Center looking for the first win of 2022-23 without AD in the lineup. But much like their last three outings, they couldn’t get it done in the second half.
They lost the game 111-102 and every starter on the team, including James, had a negative plus/minus rating. Brodie however, starting his first game off the bench, probably had his best game of the season and did not have a negative plus/minus either.
The 2017 MVP scored 18 points, gathered 8 boards to go along with 3 assists, a steal, and a block, and had a ‘0’ in the ‘+/-’ column which is, not surprisingly, his season high.
Social might still make fun of him for this, but both he and the Lakers might have found a solution for their 2022-23 season.
Can the bench role save Westbrook’s career and the Lakers from their trade trouble?
It looked like Brodie would sit out the season hiding behind his hamstring if his team would force him to the bench. But both the parties seem to have come to a common cause and going with him leading the second unit.
It might not have done the job for them against the Wolves, but if Davis had played this one, it definitely looked like the Lakers would have won it comprehensively.
But let’s see if that happens when he comes back and whether Westbrook’s ego allows him to play from the bench. The latter has a lesser chance of continuing for long, even though it could prove to be the career reviver for the 33-year-old guard.
