The Lakers hope Russell Westbrook‘s performance Friday night in Charlotte will lead to better things for the rest of the season, writes Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register. With LeBron James and Anthony Davis both sidelined by injuries, Westbrook exploded for 30 points in the second half and nearly rallied the team to a road win.
The Hornets ended up winning 117-114. At one point, the Lakers found themselves down 20 points. Westbrook scored 16 in the fourth quarter alone. In all, he went 12-of-23 from the field, 3-of-7 from three and 8-of-10 from the charity stripe for 35 points.
Westbrook was the Lakers’ prize acquisition of the offseason, but his fit with the other two stars has been questionable so far. Although his name has been mentioned in trade rumors, Westbrook remains confident that he can make it work in L.A.
“I think ultimately when myself and A.D. and Bron is on the court, we got to be able to figure that out to where I can still keep my same speed and pace to the basket and allow me to make the game easy for them,” he said. “And it’s something that we even briefly talked about after the game, about positioning and things they saw tonight from sitting on the bench, to be able to help them out.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- James will miss his third straight game Sunday at Atlanta because of “left knee soreness/effusion,” per Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. The Lakers are listing Davis as questionable.
- The Warriors had to adjust after Klay Thompson‘s return, but Thursday’s win over Minnesota showed how dangerous Golden State can be when all the pieces are working, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. Thompson and Stephen Curry combined for 52 points and the Warriors shot 58.3% as a team from three-point range. “It’s a really good indicator of what our team can look like with Klay back and everybody healthy, for the most part, in terms of our shooters,” coach Steve Kerr said. “With these last couple of games, the spacing that we’ve had and the ball movement, we’ve gotten great shots.”
- Kings guard De’Aaron Fox had to miss his fourth straight game on Saturday night with pain in his left ankle, per James Ham of ESPN 1320. “Don’t know how long he’ll be out,” said interim coach Alvin Gentry. “It is a sore ankle. That’s been it. He dresses, he tries it and then he’s really the only one that knows the pain threshold of where it is or anything. All it is is an ankle right now, there’s not anything else going on.”
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