The Los Angeles Lakers have turned it up as of late. But they still have a ways to go in order to be taken seriously in what's been a wide-open Western Conference race. Could Russell Westbrook's favorite celebration be part of what's standing in their way?

All credit to Russell Westbrook for completely buying into the bench role and becoming a positive presence in the rotation. But if there's one thing that he still needs to cut out of his game, it's apparently his “rock the baby” celebration. Based on a rough investigation conducted by Lakers Redditor u/thebarrytone, LA has had putrid luck whenever Russ brings out his baby for some mid-air cradling.

According to the data, the Lakers are 1-7 in games with video evidence of Russell Westbrook rocking his invisible baby.

The latest data point was their Tuesday loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Westbrook tied the game with a layup over Isaac Okoro and proceeded to celebrate. LA was outscored 26-12 the rest of the way.

The only game which they won with in spite of the celebration was the Lakers' November 18 win over the Detroit Pistons.  Westbrook didn't have a great shooting performance but stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, 12 assists, and five rebounds to go along with his rocked baby.

Obviously, there's likely no direct correlation between a celebration and the end result of a basketball game. But in the off chance that there's some voodoo magic at work here, someone needs to tip off Russell Westbrook to switch things up.