"Don't Be So Hard on Yourself!": Westbrook's Disastrous Debut With The Lakers

 

The much-anticipated debut of the Los Angeles Lakers' new 'Big 3' did not exactly go as planned. While LeBron James (34 pts) and Anthony Davis  (33 pts) had big games, the newcomer Russell Westbrook had a disastrous night, shooting 4-of-13 for eight points, with just 4 assists, 5 rebounds and a team-worst (by far) minus-23. 

For Mr. Triple-Double, this clunker wound up a Triple-Single.

Russell Westbrook’s career usage rate was 32.7%.

His usage rate last night was 19.3%.

It was also his third ever triple-single (less than 10/10/10) when playing 35+ minutes of his career. pic.twitter.com/6o6rDmS1Dd

— StatMuse (@statmuse) October 20, 2021

And that is only the 3rd "triple-single" of his career as a starter. 

And according to Bill Oram of The Athletic, worse than the numbers on the stat sheet, was "the tentativeness when the ball was in his hands, the complete disappearance when it was not."

After the game, LeBron told him not to be so hard on himself,  and to "go home and watch a comedy," just to laugh and forget about the "first-game jitters."

But a very glum Westbrook didn't look like he was in a laughing mood after the game:

Obviously extremely down, Westbrook could only mutter answers of a few words. 

The fact that the Lakers lost the game to the Golden State Warriors made matters worse, and as an ironic twist, all Westbrook, the league's greatest Triple-Double machine, could do was watch as Steph Curry posted one of his own to lead the Warriors to the win.

Photo  Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports