Lakers News: Russell Westbrook Confident Despite Recent Defeats

Can the Lakers turn this ship around before it runs aground?

Your Los Angeles Lakers have fallen to a miserable 2-8 record during this early portion of the 2022-23 NBA season. The club looks to not have enough help surrounding its two best players, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, to help it pile up wins.

Russell Westbrook spoke with gathered reporters following last night's game about his thoughts on how the team can right the ship following a bumpy year thus far:

Reporter: "Are you feeling more comfortable out there on the floor?"
Westbrook: "I wake up comfortable." 😉 pic.twitter.com/mLVkBqGz6s

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 8, 2022

Here's the pertinent quote:

"Just showing up to work, being professional, do your job, keep competing... Take one day at a time, we're just going to keep competing and kind of see what happens."

Westbrook is a gamer, and these are the words of someone, who across his 15 NBA seasons, has seen a lot of different team dynamics. That Brodie remains steadfast and undeterred is encouraging, but also probably something we should have just come to expect by this point.

The interesting thing about all this is how well the Lakers seem to be getting along off the court. They don't have a ton of chemistry on it (especially not James and Westbrook), but part of that is just the fact that this team does not have the horses. Westbrook in this clip almost seems resigned to accepting that reality.

Something that has at least given Westbrook a boost individually is his new role as the team's energy-changing sixth man off the bench, which helps separate him on the hardwood from James, and thus allows both future Hall of Fame players to be more fully unleashed as ball-handlers.

Through his first six games as a Lakers reserve, Westbrook is averaging 19.3 points on 51.3% shooting from the floor (including 48% shooting from three-point land), 6.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and one steal per game.