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Have the Los Angeles Lakers finally turned the corner after scoring their first win of the season Wednesday via a 121-110 revenge victory over the Denver Nuggets at home? The answer to that will be clear in the coming days, and that will also largely depend on the chemistry of the players, particularly of the stars, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis, with one another.
Westbrook played an integral role in the Lakers' win over the Nuggets, as he came off the bench — a role he either has been forced to accept or honestly embraced in full — and dropped 18 points to go with eight rebounds and eight assists in 32 minutes of action. But while Davis and Lakers head coach Darvin Ham sounded clearly thrilled over the success Westbrook had coming off the bench, the same can't be said of LeBron James during the postgame presser.
Via Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
“Moreover, James was rather despondent in his postgame press conference and hasn’t spoken as glowingly of Westbrook’s bench success as Ham and Davis have. Westbrook was twice asked about the crowd and atmosphere/environment and he chose not to compliment or even acknowledge the crowd or fan base in his responses. The team’s vibe was much better on Sunday, but the chemistry clearly isn’t where it needs to be yet.”
It could ultimately be nothing, but at the same time, everything LeBron James does is almost always going to be scrutinized and put under the microscope.
For his part, LeBron James led the Lakers against the Nuggets with 26 points on 10-for-22 shooting from the field in 35 minutes.
