Russell Westbrook struggles in his Lakers debut in season-opening loss to Warriors
The Staples Center capacity crowd was greeted with shirts commemorating the home team’s first sellout since March 10, 2020. They roared when Russell Westbrook was introduced as the first Lakers starter, a homegrown talent ready to fulfill his wildest childhood dreams.
They erupted when Carmelo Anthony, the superstar the Lakers chased years before, finally took the court as a Laker and screamed even louder when Anthony scored his first points and celebrated by putting three fingers to his temple.
And they welcomed back NBA champions Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo to their team and cheered DeAndre Jordan’s first home game back in Los Angeles.
But for everything that the Lakers did this offseason, the addition of Westbrook, the reconstruction of their roster, so much seemed as if it would depend on things looking the way they used to.
Lakers star Russell Westbrook is known as the intense triple-double machine of the NBA, but he’s sick of his reputation and ready to open up.
Whether it was the sanitized atmosphere at Staples Center, the tight turnaround from the season before or crippling injuries, the Lakers never experienced enough of LeBron James and Anthony Davis at their best last season.
But even with their superstars carrying the load Tuesday night, scoring against the Golden State Warriors’ defense without much resistance, everyone else struggled to come along. And that’s going to matter.
The defensive issues and poor shooting and rhythm that hampered their winless preseason carried over to their opening night, the Lakers losing 121-114.
The Warriors outscored the Lakers 38-29 in the fourth quarter.
Westbrook floundered in his debut, a couple of early jumpers rattling out while he looked passive around the fringes of the action. He failed to draw fouls when he attacked the basket, and the possessions chasing Stephen Curry around combined with the certain adrenaline surge from his first game left his tank looking emptier than usual.
He finished with only eight points, five rebounds, four assists and four turnovers — the Lakers 23 points worse than the Warriors in his 35 minutes on the court.
“I just got to figure it out,” Westbrook said. “It’s that simple.”
Even without Westbrook fueling things with his traditional thrust, the Lakers played mostly at a breakneck pace, pushing the tempo after misses and after Golden State makes.
“We want him to be himself,” Davis said of Westbrook.
James, more often than not, led the charge, hitting his first six shots. In the third quarter, he corralled a rebound off a missed free throw and took it the length of the floor the other way, finding a gap in the defense before skying for a one-handed slam.
He finished with 34 points and 11 rebounds.
And Davis, a disappointment last season after a slow start and injury problems that cost him most of the year, got off to an aggressive start, scoring 14 points in 12 first-quarter minutes. A fallaway jumper sent him into the courtside seats, where he playfully took a swing at Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s hat.
He scored 33 points to go with 11 rebounds.
“Those two guys were fantastic,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said.
But the two couldn’t lift the Lakers, contributing to the team’s woes with eight combined missed free throws in just 13 attempts.
Vogel kept some mystery regarding his plans for the starting lineup, committing only to James, Davis and Westbrook. But Trevor Ariza’s ankle surgery limited Vogel’s logical choices, and the Lakers went more conventional with Jordan at center and Kent Bazemore at shooting guard.
Vogel still was without much of his potential rotation with guards Wayne Ellington (hamstring) and Kendrick Nunn (ankle) both unavailable. Nunn went through a pregame warmup but was unable to play.
While the Lakers struggled in a season-opening loss to Golden State on Tuesday night, fans at Staples Center were in midseason form in their return to packing the place.
Ariza and Talen Horton-Tucker (thumb surgery) were on the bench, both inactive. That opened the door for Avery Bradley, whom the Lakers added on a nonguaranteed deal Monday after he lost the battle for a spot on the Warriors of all teams. Golden State added Gary Payton II as its final guard.
With the Lakers struggling to defend on the perimeter, Vogel inserted Bradley in the fourth quarter and the veteran quickly hit a pair of jumpers to spark the Lakers before they fell short.
Curry led the Warriors with 21 points and added 10 assists and 10 rebounds for a triple-double. Jordan Poole scored 20.
The Lakers will face the Phoenix Suns, the reigning Western Conference champions, at Staples Center on Friday night.
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