The Los Angeles Lakers are stuck in the mud this early in the 2022-23 NBA season. They are still winless after three games, the latest of which was a 106-104 loss in front of a home crowd Sunday at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers. As always whenever the Lakers lose, much of the attention following the loss to the Blazers was on which highly paid player was not able to play up to par, and just like in the past two losses, it's Russell Westbrook who's been getting a lot of negative attention.

Russell Westbrook's poor shooting night on Sunday led to a decision by Lakers head coach Darvin Ham to sit him out for the final two possessions of the contest. By then, Westbrook had already authored his final stat line in the game, shooting just 4-of-15 from the field for 10 points with six rebounds and six assists in 28 minutes. Regardless of what Russell Westbrook feels about that particular move, Ham made it clear after the game that he simply does not want to waste time weighing his players' feelings.

“For 1 person to be their feelings about when and where and how they should be in the game – I don’t have any time for that,” Ham said after the game, per Michael Corvo of ClutchPoints.

Here's an expanded look at the postgame comments of Ham.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis did most of the heavy lifting for the Lakers in the Blazers game, scoring 31 and 22 points, respectively, while Lonnie Walker IV provided sound peripheral offensive contribution with 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

Through three games, Russell Westbrook is averaging just 10.3 points on an atrocious 28.9 percent shooting from the field. He is also just an 8.3 percent shooter from deep, thus far. In addition., Russell Westbrook has a 36.6  true shooting percentage, which paints a better picture of his struggles with his shooting.

It's not about to get much easier for the Lakers, as they will play the Denver Nuggets up next Wednesday on the road before playing the Minnesota Timberwolves, also on the road, Friday. The Lakers go back home next Sunday when Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets visit Hollywood.