Kings' Russell Westbrook Gets Honest About Beating Lakers

Westbrook shines against his former team

In Monday's win over the Lakers, Westbrook finished with 22 points, five rebounds, and seven assists on 8-16 shooting from the field and 4-8 from three-point range. It is no secret that Westbrook was a sort of scapegoat on the Lakers, as he took most of the blame for their shortcomings.

Now, despite being on the brink of retirement, Westbrook continues to make a huge difference for this Kings team.

Westbrook also talked about specifically what worked for the Kings in this huge win over the Lakers, as they generated open looks and did not let their foot off the gas, winning or tying all four quarters.

"Just making the next [pass]. A lot of one mores. Did a good job of getting our spacing right. I thought it generated some open threes. Pushing in transition generated some open looks," Westbrook said. "Just dove into our defense. Got stops when we needed to. Executed down the stretch. Did a good job of playing together for 48 minutes."

As a team, the Kings shot 16-27 (65%) from beyond the arc on Monday night, marking their best shooting performance of the season by a wide margin. Malik Monk, who also used to play for the Lakers, was a huge part of that, shooting 7-9 from deep to contribute 26 points off the bench with eight assists.

"Not surprising to me," Westbrook said about Monk's performance. "Malik can hoop. Can put the ball in the hole. Given the opportunity, he will produce in some shape or form. If it's not scoring or generating offense, he does a good job of making the best play for somebody else as well. I never worry about Malik one bit."

Leading the Kings, though, was DeMar DeRozan with 32 points on 14-19 shooting. Whether they admit it or not, it is likely not a coincidence that the Kings were led by DeRozan and Westbrook, who are from the Los Angeles area, on top of Monk and Westbrook, who formerly played for the Lakers. While they might say they compete like this every night, they seemed to want to beat the Lakers a bit more than other opponents.

The Kings will now move on to face another big-market team, the New York Knicks, on Wednesday in Sacramento.

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