Being down both LeBron James and Anthony Davis, expectations were not high for the Los Angeles Lakers going into their contest against the Dallas Mavericks. Despite the offensive efforts of Russell Westbrook and Malik Monk, the Lakers’ defense was non-existent and the team was unable to keep up and now find themselves outside of the Play-In Tournament.
The Lakers allowed 82 first-half points in Dallas in their 18-point loss, their third straight and seventh in nine games. Now what many thought was impossible has become reality as the Lakers have dropped below the San Antonio Spurs for the final Play-In Tournament spot in the West.
Following the game, Westbrook was asked by L.A. Times reporter Brad Turner what changes for the Lakers now that they are on the outside looking in and the point guard responded that nothing changes. This led to an interesting exchange between the two, via NBA personality World Wide Wob (Rob Perez):
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 30, 2022
The most important thing here is that there is still much love between Westbrook and Turner as they hugged it out in the end and both sides do have their points. For Westbrook, the schedule and uphill battle that the Lakers face is the same after the game as it was before the game. But Turner wanted to know from a player’s perspective what needs to change on the court in order for the Lakers to be successful and Westbrook admittedly didn’t have the answers.
The exchange itself was still entertaining even to the studio cast at Spectrum SportsNet with analyst Robert Horry even going so far as to FaceTime Turner from the studio as they were live following everything that went down:
this is tremendous television pic.twitter.com/HG0SzJefdN
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 30, 2022
This has been an extremely frustrating season for the Lakers as a whole and things have gotten far worse than anyone could have imagined. Sometimes in these situations, the interactions between players and reporters can get icy as those in the media prod with questions that can be uncomfortable.
In this case, the respect that Westbrook and Turner have for each other showed as they were able to talk things out in a positive way and create a moment that only seems possible for the Lakers.
Westbrook stresses that Lakers just need to compete
Without LeBron and Davis, the game was always going to be an uphill battle for the Lakers, but things got bad very quickly and the team never recovered. But even when the team is down their stars, Westbrook continues to stress the need for the Lakers to do just one thing.
“We just got to compete, that’s it. That’s all you got to do,” the Lakers point guard said after their defeat in Dallas.
Now up next for the Lakers is a trip to Utah to face a Jazz team that they haven’t lost to yet this season. But as far as Westbrook is concerned that means nothing.
“Honestly, it really doesn’t matter what we did last game or the game before that. Right now we just need to focus on competing, that’s it. And then we’ll figure the rest out later.”
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