Lakers News: LeBron James, Darvin Ham Praise Russell Westbrook's Bench Debut
Despite suffering a 111-102 road loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, the leaders of your Los Angeles Lakers had some positive takeaways even after falling to an 0-5 record on the year.
LeBron James and Darvin Ham both heaped praise on $47.1 million point guard Russell Westbrook for thriving (relatively speaking) in his new role as an energy-changing reserve. Westbrook did come off the bench once during the team's preseason, but last night marked the first time he had done so for Los Angeles.
The 6'3" UCLA product scored 18 points, albeit on 6-of-17 field goal shooting and 5-of-10 free-throw shooting, pulled down eight rebounds, dished out three assists (against five turnovers), and chipped in one steal and one block to boot. His net neutral plus-minus score (a 0) in 32:38 minutes was better than any of the starters', who were all negative.
James was initially fairly brief in reflecting on Westbrook's new role with the team. When pressed, he opted to elaborate slightly:
"He was great. And [that energy] definitely catapulted to us. He was great the whole game."
The move helped head coach maximize both players by staggering their minutes a bit. Westbrook thrives with the ball in his hand (at least, until the fourth quarter), and has struggled off the ball when James leads the action. The duo did have some nice minutes together, especially as they put the team on their backs for a nifty 7-0 run to end the first half and knot the contest up at 52-52.
Darvin Ham was similarly complimentary in his postgame media comments.
Here's the TL;DR gist of Ham's comments on Russ:
"My hat's off to him once again. [He] came off [the bench], and showed the type of impact he can have in that reserve role, in shoring up our bench. Not just coming in and trying to maintain anything but coming in and taking it up a notch. So he was great tonight and I look forward to seeing him [do that] more once we get more healthy bodies back."
Ham went on to specifically cite starting center/power forward Anthony Davis, out last night with a sore lower back, and reserve guard Dennis Schröder, who is recovering from a thumb surgery. Thomas Bryant, also recovering from a thumb surgery, and Cole Swider, dealing with a right foot stress reaction, are sidelined as well.
