Lakers: Internet Reacts to Russell Westbrook's Terrible Shooting Against the Knicks
Much maligned Lakers guard Russell Westbrook appeared to be finding his form over the last few games. Any momentum Russ had was quickly wiped away on Saturday night against the Knicks.
Westbrook went 1-for-10 from the field and scored just five points. At one point, the fans at Crypto.com drenched Russ with a deluge of boos after an attempted bank shot that didn’t draw iron.
Westbrook’s performance against the Knicks led to head coach Frank Vogel benching Russ for the entire overtime period in the Lakers 122-115 win.
Of course, the internet sounded off on Westbrook’s dreadful game.
Even Golden State Warriors fans got involved.
Westbrook finished the game with the lowest plus-minus on the team (-15). According to Basketball Reference, Saturday’s game was Russ’s worst game score (-0.5) of the season. It narrowly edged out his 4-for-13 game against the Warriors back in October (-0.4).
Prior to his Saturday night meltdown, Westbrook was averaging 19.8 PPG and shooting 48.8% from the field in his previous eight games.
After the Knicks win, both LeBron James and Anthony Davis supported their struggling teammate.
LeBron still believes Russ can contribute at a high level for the Lakers.
"I told him to text me later. I told him to keep going, stop second-guessing himself... He's an instinctive player, with what he's done in this league, he should never second guess himself... I have the utmost confidence in his ability.”
Davis echoed LeBron’s belief that Westbrook has to continue to trust his basketball instincts.
“One thing you can’t do is put too much pressure on yourself. You gotta go out there and play freely. There was some shots tonight that he usually takes in rhythm and he kind of passed up or hesitated.”
Russ will hope to bounce back on Tuesday when the Lakers host the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks.
