Los Angeles Lakers fans were absolutely brutal when assessing Russell Westbrook, but it turns out he holds the key for their team right now.
The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in quite a predicament. Heading into the playoffs, few would have predicted them being down 3-1 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Lakers came into the playoffs with a lot of momentum, securing the third seed in the West with a 50-win season.
But the Lakers have been bested by the Timberwolves in a frankly embarrassing way. On the other side of the Western Conference, the Denver Nuggets have been thriving, taking a 3-2 lead over the LA Clippers.
One of the key factors for the Nuggets’ success is one man who was the Lakers’ scapegoat a few years ago when they were failing – Russell Westbrook.
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One of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Achilles heel this playoff run has been their scoring off the bench. While Luka Doncic and LeBron James have put up strong numbers on the board, the rest of the roster has fallen behind.
In fact, no star that has come off the bench for the Lakers in their first four playoff games has scored double-digit points.
The Lakers’ bench, across four games, has scored a combined 51 points. That is an average of 12.5 points per game from the bench.
If they want any chance of making an impossible comeback like Luka Doncic and LeBron James think they can, the Lakers need their bench players to step up.
Looking at other teams in the playoffs, they all have at least one player who habitually steps up and scores points from the bench.
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While the Lakers lack a reliable scorer off the bench, the same can’t be said for the Denver Nuggets. In fact, they have a former Lakers star filling that role for them – Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook has had multiple games scoring double-digit points for the Nuggets while coming off the bench. In fact, he even scored 21 points against the Clippers in Game 5.
So far, he has averaged 13.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in four games, and has done a lot for the Nuggets on the offensive end.
While his scoring exploits haven’t always contributed to winning, the Nuggets have always been competitive in this series thanks to Westbrook.
If the Lakers had this kind of production off the bench, they would be benefiting from it massively. Rather, the franchise scapegoated Westbrook, and the fans resented him for something that wasn’t his fault.
This is an oversimplification of what happened between the two sides, but if the Lakers had a player like Westbrook, they might be in a much better position.
