Russell Westbrook believes unfamiliarity with bench role caused his hamstring injury
LA Lakers superstar Russell Westbrook believes coming off the bench during their preseason finale affected his pre-game preparations. Westbrook even attributed his recent hamstring injury to his move to the bench.
The former MVP played just five minutes off the bench in the Lakers' 133-86 preseason loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday. He left the court with a hamstring injury and didn't return for LA's pre-season finale.
However, he was fit for the Lakers' regular-season opener on Tuesday night against the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors dominated the Lakers to win 123-109 at Chase Center on their ring night.
After the game, Westbrook discussed his injury, saying:
"I've been doing the same thing for 14 years straight. Honestly, I didn't even know what to do pregame. Being honest, I was trying to figure out how to stay warm and loose. ... That's something I just wasn't accustomed to."
Russell Westbrook said he “absolutely” believes that coming off the bench against Sacramento contributed to him tweaking his hamstring in that game. “I’ve been doing the same thing for 14 years straight,” he said. “Honestly I didn’t even know what to do pregame.”
Lakers coach Darvin Ham put Westbrook back in the starting lineup against the Warriors on opening night. It marked his 1005th career start since his debut in 2008.
Westbrook played 31 minutes against the Warriors, finishing with 19 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, one steal and four turnovers on 7/12 shooting.
Ham told reporters after the game that Russ looked good back in the starting five:
"I thought he was solid. I thought he was solid. A couple possessions I wish I can get back, but overall, I thought he was solid."
When asked if he planned to stick with his starters from opening night moving forward, the Lakers coach showed some hesitancy and said:
"We'll see. I'm a day-by-day guy."
Whether or not Russell Westbrook continues to start remains to be seen. While he enjoyed a decent shooting night against Golden State, he contributed four of the LA Lakers' alarming 21 turnovers.
The Lakers will also have to shoot a lot better as a team if they hope to be competitive this season. LA shot just 25% (10/40) from three versus the Warriors on Tuesday night.
What could be Russell Westbrook’s role this season?
After the LA Lakers' season opener, Darvin Ham also told reporters what he expects from Russell Westbrook as a starter. Ham highlighted that he wants Westbrook to bring energy and aggression from the start of games.
"You want to start the game off the right way in terms of your energy and being in attack mode, and no one better than him. I mean, it's what we have, and we got some key guys hurt. It's Game 1, give them a chance to go out and compete at the highest level," he said.
Lakers superstars Anthony Davis and LeBron James also spoke about how Westbrook played alongside them against the Golden State Warriors. Davis first highlighted the trio’s constant aggressiveness.
"We wanted to come out and everybody be aggressive. … At certain moments throughout the game, one of us three were aggressive, and it worked out for it to look good," AD said.
James then touched upon how the three of them played more freely and shot more efficiently than they did last season:
"I thought we all just kind of played free. And it resulted in all three of us pretty much being efficient from the floor."
It will be interesting to see if the LA Lakers can now start to translate Russell Westbrook’s energy and aggression into wins. Next up, they will take on the LA Clippers on Thursday night at the Crypto.com Arena.