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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:
Westbrook really 0-11 tonight 0-6 from downtown with two points.. come on Lakers it’s time to make some calls pic.twitter.com/1bokQmJOCV
— Daniel (@dlu247) October 21, 2022
Someone tell Russell Westbrook that 2K changes Shot Timing every time you log off
— Kofie.bsky.social (@Kofie) October 21, 2022
TNT kept this Westbrook graphic up for more than five seconds. That wasn’t nice. pic.twitter.com/vag3ccTPeN
— Steve Berman (@BASportsGuy) October 21, 2022
After playing a whopping 27 minutes Russell Westbrook scored 2 points im going to throw up pic.twitter.com/rAKwtRwyFu
— ALEX 🌟 (@AlexToooFunny) October 21, 2022
https://twitter.com/ArracetiA/status/1583315101792505856
2022 Russell Westbrook one of the worst basketball players I’ve ever seen in my life.
— kingtisemedia (@kingtisemedia) October 21, 2022
Russell Westbrook missed all 11 of his field goal attempts tonight, the fourth time he's failed to make a field goal in his career and first since going 0-for-3 in 2016 against Dallas (was ejected in the second quarter). pic.twitter.com/TeF8n9coXS
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 21, 2022
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:
WESTBROOK GUARDING KAWHI//WESTBROOK DOING ALL THE OTHER THINGS pic.twitter.com/4KOa6F0dhI
— King James (@Mmkgnss) October 21, 2022
1. LeBron James looks like LeBron James.
2. These players play hard for Darvin Ham.
3. Russell Westbrook played a great defensive fourth quarter.
All three of these things matter more than the outcome. There were a lot of positives tonight.
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) October 21, 2022
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.
