Lakers: Russell Westbrook, Darvin Ham Argue During Halftime Of Thunder Loss

Trouble in paradise as the deadline looms.

Yesterday, just two days before tomorrow's league-wide trade deadline, Los Angeles Lakers $47.1 million super-sub Russell Westbrook had a bizarre game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

He frequently froze out All-Star teammate LeBron James, while the latter was attempting to break ex-Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's longstanding record as the NBA's leading regular season scorer. As you've no doubt heard, James succeeded. He didn't exactly seem excited to celebrate the achievement, either.

Now it appears that there was also trouble in paradise behind the scenes.

Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Westbrook got into an angry debate with Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham at the halftime break, apparently kicked off by Ham's frustration with Westbrook's reticence to return to the team bench when Ham had replaced him on the hardwood late in the game's second quarter. Westbrook had stayed on the court, even when he was no longer technically in the game.

Even after James had scored his 35th and 36th points to accrue a new-record 38,388 career regular season points (he would finish the game with 38 total, thus making 38,390 the record), Westbrook tried to win the game more or less on his own late. The 6'3" ex-All-Star scored 14 points in the contest's fourth quarter alone. LA eventually fell to the Thunder in a pretty pivotal game, 133-130. The Lakers are now 25-30 in the West, with their playoff hopes dwindling by the day.

Westbrook must be traded. Why he's remained on the club this long is a bit nonsensical, as various trade options have fallen off the board. The eroding chemistry is just the latest symptom of what has been an incredibly unhappy union for the past season-and-a-half.