Lakers’ Russell Westbrook is honest about his decline – Orange County Register

Editor’s Note: This is the Thursday January 13 edition of the Purple & Bold Lakers newsletter from reporter Kyle Goon. To receive newsletters in your inbox, Register here.

To the third question in his post-match press conference on Wednesday night, Russell Westbrook signaled he was doing something different.

The famous 33-year-old former NBA MVP caused a war with the media. There were nights when he whirled around in single answers, nights when he laughed between questions, nights when he flipped through his phone rather than making eye contact. During the numerous post-match media sessions, Westbrook got the impression that he wanted to do anything other than speak to reporters.

But after a night of shooting 2v14 in a 125-116 loss to the Sacramento Kings, a reporter mentioned that he was in a slump.

Westbrook interrupted: “Oh my god, who are you talking to? I can’t make a shot (finish), boy. ”

What happened in the next 10 minutes was probably his most honest Westbrook this season, not only responsible for his shootings of the past few weeks, but given the rare – and even somewhat disarming – look at how he ticks.

Of course, Westbrook has long been famous, and with that popularity comes the criticism. Although the nine-time all-NBA selection has felt the heat this year with his fourth team in as many seasons with His goalscoring, assists, kicks and other key stats were successful, Westbrook’s Wire turns those criticisms into a sort of confirmation.

“Every arena, fans, anyone, jokes, insiders, whatever it may be – I take that as a compliment because if I’m not out here and not doing anything nothing in this game, they won’t mind. with me or don’t care what I’m doing or how I’m doing it,” he said. “I see it as a positive. Because if they’re too concerned with what I’m doing, how I’m doing, when I’m doing it, then I’m doing something right in this game.”

That said, but Westbrook knows his scoring form is painfully low. In the last nine games, he has shot just 34.8% and has made only 4 of 24 games from the 3-point range (he hasn’t hit a 3-pointer in six consecutive games).

In previous weeks, Westbrook said his game is not based on scoring: “I am allowed to miss shots. I can do that,” he said earlier this month. But on Wednesday, he acknowledged the obvious fact that something was up with his offensive game and critiqued, he doesn’t blame the right location or the floor or anything or anyone else but himself.

“Obviously I had to do it and figure it out,” he said. “But no one will feel sorry for me or for us to be able to do that. As a player I have to find a way to do it in the best way the way we’re playing, within the system and that’s it. I have no excuses. For me, I’m not pointing the finger”.

On the last shot of the game, he missed 3 points with his team down 4 points and 1:07 remaining, he offered a lucid explanation: “The clock turns to 4 seconds. Running a play, they denied it. There weren’t too many options at the time. We put a screen, the guy went under, I missed it. That’s it.”

While at one point Westbrook’s warm-up trend into the season looked The schedule – his filming performance has increased from 44% in October to 47% in December – has been steadily declining since Christmas. He has 8 goals for 40 goals in his last three games.

What seems strange from the outside is that this drop coincides with the Lakers’ decision to go almost full-time to a low-ball roster. After a major comeback attempt in the fourth quarter against the Brooklyn Nets, the Lakers begin LeBron James at center in their next game in Houston. This looks like a move the Rockets attempted during the 2019-20 season when they committed to playing small-ball to trading center point Clint Capela.

In this gap, Westbrook thrives: From January 9 to March 7 of that season, he averaged 32.2 points with 53.1% shots along with 8.2 rebounds and 7.1 assists. He was the third team pick at the All-NBA and could climb even higher had the pandemic not forced a disruption, after which Westbrook played injured in the NBA bubble.

Bring what? Westbrook didn’t elaborate on exactly what’s different, but he said he doesn’t think the Lakers and Rockets, other than not playing traditional centers, are comparable.

“I think people always imply that, but it’s not the same: different players, different personnel, different systems,” he said. “A lot of things have changed. It’s not the same. It was a little ball, but nothing like it since I did it in Houston and like what I’m doing now. ”

There are judgments that an outsider can make. For one thing, LeBron James is playing center, but he is a dynamic center, scoring inside while picking and scrolling and performing the following plays. While the paint was less clogged when Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan weren’t in line with him and James, it still didn’t have the wide open space that it had when James Harden sat near the middle and let Westbrook play inside.

There’s also a curious pattern of Westbrook’s ability to hit the belt. He has only had 9 players this season, which is 18 years old, which would be the lowest number of his career. He’s been 9 out of 16 dribbling attempts, and according to NBA statistics, he’s been blocked 32 attempts to shoot within 5 feet (he’s been blocked 45 times at the same range all season). previous award). While that could be a sign of a decline in fitness, the more intriguing pattern is that Westbrook’s number of successful games has dropped each month, from four in just seven in October, to less than one. any game in January (he only tried one). After trying seven times in November, he tried only four in December.

Coach Frank Vogel thinks Westbrook has listened to the coach and he doesn’t have the feeling that his confidence is shaken. It’s not clear whether a coaching adjustment will help Westbrook out of the race, or simply by Westbrook himself.

One thing Westbrook mentioned: He doesn’t like the word “downhill”. That’s what he’s been doing, he said, and he’s done it before.

Perhaps most importantly, he said, not his bumpy start nor has the Lakers (21-21) hovering at the .500 level have shaken his belief that he is on a team capable of big wins. It didn’t happen Wednesday night, but Westbrook still thinks it could.

“My confidence never wavered, regardless of scrutiny, regardless of what was said,” he said. “That’s been my whole career. Does not matter. Every year, people always discuss it and what, how and when. And we have a team here that can do that. Once we all get together and play some games together, stay healthy, we can see what we can really do as we switch seasons. We are now half way through. When we get to the knockout stages, I believe we can do something special. ”

– Kyle Goon

Editor’s Note: Thank you for reading the Purple & Bold Lakers newsletter from reporter Kyle Goon. To receive newsletters in your inbox, Register here.