LeBron James has defended Russell Westbrook after the latter had a disastrous shooting night against the LA Clippers.
Russell Westbrook has not had a successful spell at the Los Angeles Lakers at all by his high standards. The future NBA Hall of Famer who has enjoyed quite a successful career made the move to the Los Angeles Lakers at the start of the 2021/22 season, but injuries and lack of form have heavily hampered his spell at the storied franchise where he has faced a lot of criticism.
Westbrook faced plenty of criticism from both fans as well as the press courtesy of his injury-laden first season with the Lakers – particularly for his shooting form. While it seemed like he was on his way out of the Lakers roster with Patrick Beverley coming in to take his place, circumstances meant that Westbrook would stay and go on to start the season with the Lakers.
While Westbrook may have hoped for a better start to his second season with the Lakers than the first, it was not to be. The Lakers have lost both of their opening games in the 2022/23 season to the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers – and while the blame has been put on a lot of players, it was especially Westbrook who took most of the fans’ brunt for the last game.
Even though Westbrook played only 27 minutes, he could not make a single field goal and went 0 out of 11 attempts, out of which five were two-pointers and six were three-pointers. His disastrous shooting form was subjected to heavy criticism following the game, but it was his teammate and Lakers star LeBron James who came to Westbrook’s defense following the game.
The NBA legend defended his teammate by saying that everybody has had bad shooting nights, and also said that he thinks Westbrook played well.
When asked about his advice for Westbrook, James said: “Everybody in this league has bad shooting nights. Who cares? I thought he played a great game. Defensively, he was locked in… Flush it down the toilet & get ready for Sunday.”
The Lakers will hope to win their first game of the season when they go up against the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night.
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