The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a devastating defeat during Wednesday night’s NBA action in a matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, 123-115. After putting together a good, come-from-behind win against the San Antonio Spurs the night before, the Lakers blew a lead of their own in this one.
Los Angeles led by as many as 26 points in the first half but saw the Thunder chip into that lead heading into halftime. It disappeared altogether in the third quarter behind a 17-point scoring burst from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the stanza.
The 26-point come-from-behind win is the biggest in Thunder franchise history and another blemish for the Lakers in the early season. Yes, this game was played without LeBron James one again, but blowing a lead of that size is inexcusable.
A lot of the focus once again is on their point guard, Russell Westbrook. Facing off against his former team, we saw the full Westbrook experience.
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He recorded his first triple-double as a Laker, scoring 20 points with 14 rebounds and 13 assists. But he was an inefficiency 8-of-20 from the field, going 2-of-8 from 3-point land. He also turned the ball over 10 times for the negative version of a quadruple-double and was ejected in the waning seconds of the game.
There has been plenty of discussion about what the Los Angeles Lakers can do with Westbrook and what his role should be. Discussing it after the game, former head coach Jim Boylen suggested that Frank Vogel try bringing him off the bench.
Russell Westbrook has started all but 17 games in his NBA career and all of them came in his rookie season. It would be a drastic move to remove him from the starting lineup after five games in the season and one that seems unlikely to occur.
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Vogel and his staff have to figure out a way to make things work and we could see them stagger the minutes more once they get some injured players back in the mix. The only chance Los Angeles has at reaching the heights they want is if they can get their three stars on the same page, otherwise, some moves may have to be made.
