The Los Angeles Lakers gave the Sacramento Kings a rude welcome inside Crypto.com Arena Tuesday night. It was the Lakers' third-straight victory, but the spotlight shone on Russell Westbrook for breaking one unflattering streak.
Westbrook was flawless against the Kings in the turnover department, snapping his streak of 407-straight games with at least one miscue, per ESPN's Marc J. Spears. Furthermore, Spears pointed out that the former MVP's string of games with a turnover was, by far, the longest since 1977-78—the year when the NBA began tracking such stat.
The last time Russell Westbrook had zero turnovers in a regular-season game was in 2016, back when he was still rolling with Kevin Durant for the Oklahoma City Thunder and LeBron James was rocking the Cleveland Cavaliers' colors.
Russell Westbrook 19 points, 7 assists, 2 steals, and ZERO turnovers! 👀
It's the first zero turnover regular season game for Russ since March 14, 2016. pic.twitter.com/4zHcG1w8XN
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 5, 2022
A lot has changed since then except for the Lakers star's propensity to turn the ball over. In 39 games for the Lakers thus far, Westbrook has averaged 4.6 turnovers nightly. He has never normed less than four per game since the 2013-14 season, and the safe bet is it's not going to happen anytime soon.
Considering everything Westbrook brings to the table, the turnover rate can be more tolerable. The Lakers just wish this translates sooner than later as they aren't standing on solid ground in the win-loss column. The win over the Kings gave the Lakers the seventh seed in the Western Conference.
No matter what happens, Westbrook is going to start a new turnover streak. The Lakers can only hope that this is a small price to pay for everything he does for the team.
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