After losing their season opener to the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers returned home to face the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday.
Although they played well defensively, holding a talented Clippers team to 103 points, they couldn’t produce offensively and lost by six points.
Perhaps the worst performer was Russell Westbrook. After a solid outing versus the Warriors, he went 0-of-11 from the field against the Clippers.
Head coach Darvin Ham could’ve gone with someone else in crunch time, but he decided to reinsert Westbrook with 5:39 left in the fourth quarter.
Fox Sports 1 personality Skip Bayless thinks Ham did so because he’s afraid of the former league MVP.
Via Lakers Daily:
“Bayless made the comments on his weekday program “Undisputed” and stated that Ham continued to play Westbrook, even though the veteran was having a brutal shooting night in the Thursday night defeat.
“‘I was daring Darvin Ham to put him back in the game because Darvin Ham seems to be afraid of Russell Westbrook,’ Bayless said. ‘He seems to be crumbling at Westbrook’s feet now, because he’s going to start him, and he’s going to finish him.'”
Reportedly, Ham has been given the freedom to bench Westbrook down the stretch of games if he wants to. In fact, he brought the guard off the bench in L.A.’s final preseason game.
