With Anthony Davis already out, there is little room for error for the Los Angeles Lakers as everyone must step up in order to keep things afloat. One player who is extremely important in that regard is Russell Westbrook as his playmaking has been huge for the rest of the role players on the team.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, Westbrook did not play in the second half of Monday night’s win over the Charlotte Hornets as he continues to deal with foot soreness that has caused him to miss a couple of games already this year.
Perhaps head coach Darvin Ham and the Lakers were being precautionary with Westbrook, knowing they can’t afford to lose him for any significant amount of time, especially right now. Whatever the case, Ham noted that once the coaching staff got the report that he was dealing with soreness, they made the choice to shut him down for the second half, via NBA.com:
“Yea well I just got the report that he had foot soreness at halftime, so as a staff we just decided to shut him down.”
The Lakers did have things in hand at halftime in Charlotte leading by 15 points so perhaps that also played a role in the decision to rest Westbrook for the rest of the game. The Lakers did have a bit of a scare late in the fourth but were able to hold on and get the victory, their third in the last four games.
More important, however, is the health of Westbrook moving forward as he has continued to flourish in his sixth-man role. Not just his scoring ability, but the way he has continually set up players for easy buckets has uplifted his Lakers teammates. In particular, big men Thomas Bryant and Wenyen Gabriel have been on the receiving end of countless Westbrook assists.
Hopefully Westbrook and the Lakers are able to figure out exactly what the issue is and prevent this from becoming something more serious as the Lakers can not afford another major blow like this.
Top prospect Scoot Henderson models his game after Lakers’ Russell Westbrook
Westbrook is really a one-of-a-kind player, but all the greats eventually get emulated in some ways by those who come after them and that is the case with the Lakers point guard. Top NBA prospect Scoot Henderson says it is Westbrook who he most compares his game to even though he studies other great point guards as well.
One area where Henderson definitely takes from Westbrook is the aggression and energy that he plays with. Henderson noted that he used to watch Westbrook highlights before games and that the passion that Westbrook continues to play with to this day is something he tries to bring out of himself.
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