Russell Westbrook didn’t have the best of the previous season for the LA Lakers. Westbrook had joined the Lakers before the last edition and there were a lot of expectations from him. The trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook were expected to take the Lakers a long way in the season.
However, Westbrook could not make a mark with his performances while Davis and James were troubled with injuries. However, despite Westbrook’s ho-hum performances, James never criticized him publicly in press conferences and always backed him.
In fact, the Lakers could not even qualify for the play-in tournament and James admitted that injuries led to their downfall in the season.
NBA analyst Kyle Goon reckons it seemed like LeBron James and Rusell Westbrook were never on the same page and their camaraderie on the court wasn’t up to the mark.
On the crossover podcast, Goon said, “Over time, the body language evolved and it’s pretty famous that LeBron gets bad body language when things aren’t going his way or the team isn’t performing the way he wants and that just kinda kept going.
“And what the body language is doing Russ and LeBron when the other had a good game and one didn’t, it just seemed off. It just seemed like those two were never were often on the same page after games and sort of had a little bit of oil and water to them by the end of the season.”
In fact, due to injury woes, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook could only play 21 matches together in the previous season for the team. The Lakers had a 11-10 record in those matches.
Lakers will be determined to turn the tables in the next season and their Big 3 will play a key role in their success if they are to go a long way in the edition.
