Russell Westbrook is still a member of the Los Angeles Lakers — and he's still throwing shade at Frank Vogel.
Vogel sat Westbrook in overtime of the Lakers' win vs. the New York Knicks on Saturday. He said all the right things about winning being the most important thing and wanting to keep the focus away from him.
In their next game — a blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday — Vogel sat Westbrook for the final 16 minutes of action, even while the Lakers made a surge to cut the game to 10 points. Afterward, Westbrook did not hold back on calling out Vogel for sitting him down the stretch. Westbrook has been subtly taking shots at Vogel for weeks — typically citing his inconsistent demands of Russ.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7BEKJ8uOsZPkRay9BYms1V?si=6a63dac971314f7d
Westbrook was then surprisingly ruled out for Wednesday's game against the Portland Trail Blazers with lower back tightness. The timing was suspicious — one night before the trade deadline and one night after causing a postgame stir (Westbrook's absence meant he didn't have to speak to reporters). Westbrook nor the Lakers had made any mention of back tightness and he had not been listed on any injury reports.
However, there were signs Westbrook was truly dealing with back pain — and not just because of his startingly hesitant and ineffective performances vs. the Knicks and Bucks. In the game prior to that, Westbrook seemed to tweak his back on a screen by Los Angeles Clippers center Isaiah Hartlestein. While he was sitting out in the fourth quarter on Tuesday, he made the choice to lie or sit on the floor next to the bench — which players tend to do when they are dealing with back issues (see Nash, Steve.)
On Friday, Westbrook spoke to reporters and was asked about the status of his back and whether he'd be available to play against the Golden State Warriors at the Chase Center on Saturday.
“I'm alright. I'll see how I feel in the morning, making sure that I'm ready to go. Just day-by-day at the moment, just making sure that everything is moving the way I need to move. Making sure I'm moving the way I need to do in order to be able to play tomorrow night.”
Lakers injury report for Saturday's game vs. Warriors:
-Carmelo Anthony is out
-LeBron James and Russell Westbrook are questionable
-Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard are probable pic.twitter.com/lcI98MudkU— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvoNBA) February 11, 2022
He seemed to blame Vogel for causing his back to stiffen.
“It comes and goes,” he said about his back pain. “It was honestly, a lot in Milwaukee —” he paused and giggled — “and I'm not accustomed to sitting down for long stretches, and like getting up and like moving quickly. Caused (it) to kind of like stiff up a little bit. And then kind of moving into the next night, woke up, same thing…So, I want to make sure that I can stay healthy and be the best for my teammates when I'm on the floor.”
Vogel said the Lakers looked “refreshed” and had a “great energy” in practice on Friday, noting the opportunity to “reset” after the deadline.
10 minutes later, Russell Westbrook indirectly blamed him for injuring his back.
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