Russell Westbrook finally acknowledges that he’s been a problem this season after shooting 5-17 in the Lakers’ huge loss to Dallas Mavericks.
Advertisement
The Lakers have longer losing streaks this season than winning. Although they’re not the only team dealing with injuries to key players, coupled with the Covid outbreak, somehow LeBron James always uses it as a convenient excuse for their abysmal record.
Even when Anthony Davis was playing they lost to lottery teams. So the losses cannot be pinned on his injury. There are three visible scapegoats enduring all the fan backlash, Rob Pelinka, Frank Vogel, and Russell Westbrook. The Lakers were booed by their crowd in the Crypto.com Arena after an embarrassing loss to the Pelicans earlier this week.
They traded their future and compromised depth for three big names on their roster and are paying dearly now.
Russell Westbrook gets self-critical after loss to Luka Doncic and co
The triple-double king avoids post-game media interactions after bad games. On Tuesday night, however, he sat down and acknowledged the fact that he is part of the problem. Westbrook shot 29.4% from the field and had no luck from the 3-pt line. Although he avoided having turnovers despite dishing out 8 assists, contribution on the offensive end is expected of him especially since AD is out.
“I need to be better overall. What I’m doing right now isn’t good enough.” Russell Westbrook following a 5-17 shooting night in #Lakers loss to Dallas. pic.twitter.com/mgM55WBaxT
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 2, 2022
“One, we lost. Number two, looking at how I need to be better… I just have to be better overall. What I’m doing right now ain’t good enough, “ says Westbrook.
Lakers’ aspirations have fallen from winning the title to just making the play-in tournament at this point. Westbrook was extremely confident that his squad will make it. Even if they make it to the playoffs, they don’t stand a chance against Phoenix Suns.
“Because I got confidence in this group like I always have. We can play the best teams. I’m not worried about nobody we have to play. We’ve beaten the best teams. We’ve lost to some of the worst teams. So my confidence in this group is extremely high.”
The battle of LA will take place one last time this season and the Lakers will have to bring in their A-game to avoid a season sweep by the depleted Clippers in the upcoming game.