Russell Westbrook will be listed as “day-to-day” with left hamstring soreness, according to the Los Angeles Lakers. Westbrook has no structural damage in his hamstring, per Yahoo's Chris Haynes, though his status for Tuesday's season opener vs. the Golden State Warriors is up the air.
Russell Westbrook (hamstring) and Dennis Schroder (finger) are both “day to day,” per Darvin Ham. Ham said Westbrook has a chance to play in the opener. Schroder’s recovery will likely be longer.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) October 16, 2022
Westbrook exited the Lakers' preseason finale against the Sacramento Kings on Friday after just five minutes of action. He had a slight limp as he went to the locker room and was soon ruled out for the rest of the night. It's unclear precisely when Russ suffered the injury.
Russell Westbrook has a left hamstring injury and is OUT for the rest of tonight's preseason finale vs. the Kings, the Lakers have announced.
Here's Westbrook heading to the locker room:pic.twitter.com/VNBFfVY1q6
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 15, 2022
Hamstring injuries can easily reoccur, so the Lakers will want to be extra cautious with Russ. In terms of availability, Westbrook was the team's most reliable player in 2021-22, appearing in 78 games.
The bigger question facing Westbrook is what his role for the Lakers will be when he's ready to hoop. Darvin Ham finally made the move to bring him off the bench in Sacramento, but the hamstring issue didn't allow the head coach to get a genuine look at Westbrook as a quarterback of the second unit.
"That's not even a sample size," LeBron said about Russell Westbrook's 5 minutes off the bench before his hamstring injury (Q by @DanWoikeSports) https://t.co/P3rquVeLyz
— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvoNBA) October 15, 2022
“Some guys play better off the ball, some guys play better with the ball in their hands, and through no fault of their own, that’s just how they’re built, you know?” Ham said about the move, which he called a “realignment” instead of a demotion. “You’re not gonna have LeBron James play without the ball in his hands for, you know, 80, 85 percent of his minutes that he’s on the floor, you know? At some point, you’ve got to allow him to orchestrate. Same thing with Russ. And so to create some type of balance, we wanted to look at this, the setup of this type of rotation and see if it works for us. The door’s not closed on Russ starting, and the door’s not closed on (whether) this works, you know. We got to explore it even further.”
Darvin Ham assesses the #Lakers' preseason and the struggles of not having the whole squad due to injuries. pic.twitter.com/xvCIRekcpJ
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 15, 2022
Anthony Davis, meanwhile, missed the Lakers' preseason finale as he continues to deal with lower back soreness. He's expected to be in the lineup at the Chase Center on Tuesday.
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