The Los Angeles Lakers were able to keep it close against their cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers, on Thursday night. In the end, however, it was the Clippers who escaped with a victory in the Crypto.com Arena, 103-97.

Russell Westbrook got the start for the Lakers in this one, but to say that he had another forgettable performance would be a huge understatement. This is especially once you realize that he went 0-of-11 from his attempts on the evening. NBA Twitter seems to agree:

https://twitter.com/ArracetiA/status/1583315101792505856

That's brutal. Then again, you can't say that Russ didn't have it coming after that awful performance in this eventful Lakers loss.

For what it's worth, Westbrook was actually pretty good on defense in this one. That seemed to be the lone bright spot for him in an otherwise forgettable evening:

As the above tweet noted, though, it wasn't all bad for both Westbrook and the Lakers. His effort on the defensive end was commendable, although, in truth, it's easily overshadowed by his shortcomings on offense.

As for the Lakers, they put in a noteworthy effort in this one, which if you think about it, was also the case in their opening-night loss to the Golden State Warriors. On Thursday, the Lakers kept the game close all night, and they didn't fold when the Clippers threw their best haymaker at them.

Regardless of all this, however, the harsh reality for the Lakers is that they are now 0-2, and looking at their schedule ahead, it could get much worse from here.