Rockets tried to let ‘Russ be Russ’ to no avail
As the Christmas Day matchup of contenders ended, Russell Westbrook still did not seem to be fitting in with his new team. He put up good numbers but made just 11 of his 32 shots, missing all eight of his 3pointers. There seemed little chance the mix with his superstar teammate would work.
The Rockets lost that day to the Golden State Warriors.
Two years later, as the Christmas Day matchup of contenders ended, Westbrook did not seem to be fitting his new team. He put up good numbers: 13 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists but made just 4 of 20 shots.
The Lakers lost that day to the Brooklyn Nets.
Questions remain about whether he would ever make the mix work with his latest superstar teammate, LeBron James.
When Westbrook said Monday that he alone knows what “let Russ be Russ” actually means, it might not have appeared that the Lakers would ever crack the code. The Rockets have been there.
“People are saying ‘let Russ be Russ,’ I think nobody understands what that means,” Westbrook said. “I think people just say it — ‘let Russ be Russ’ — but nobody actually knows what that means but myself.”
That did not clear things up. The call to “let Russ be Russ” has followed him nearly as much as his ability to produce tripledoubles, if with occasional headsmacking moments of wayward defense or stunning shot selection.
But if any teams should understand what it means to let him Russ his way through games, it would be the two that met in Toyota Center on Tuesday night.
Westbrook’s play with the Rockets is generally described as a failure. It was not. Westbrook needed time to adjust. He had to work his way back after an offseason spent in rehab. But after that Christmas game and one more dud, he took off.
Westbrook after the loss to the Warriors was averaging 24.1 points on 42.6 percent shooting and 23.8 percent shooting on 3-pointers while putting up 5.1 3-pointers per game.
The rest of the season, he averaged 30.2 points on 51 percent shooting. He made 30 percent of his 3s but took just 2.4 per game.
After Westbrook clanged his way through Saturday’s showcase game, sparking new rounds of analysis about his fit with the Lakers and even debate about the merits of trading him, he was averaging 19.6 points on 45.1 percent shooting and 30.4 percent 3-point shooting, significant jumps in his efficiency compared to his first months with the Rockets, if not in his scoring.
To empower him “to be Russ” the Rockets went small to extremes, but that season ended with the Lakers demonstrating that they won’t have to.
Westbrook has not expressed an interest in adjusting, particularly with his defiant posture in Monday’s media session. But he never acknowledged a need to change with the Rockets, either.
He did get off the ball with the Rockets, taking advantage of the double teams that were sent to slow James Harden and often are devoted to defending James with the Lakers. Westbrook dominated in the two-and-a-half months to begin 2020, with his play rivaling even his best stretches with the Thunder.
The season is not remembered that way because of his dreadful play in the postseason, but that was when he was hurrying back from COVID and a thigh injury. It was not because of his fit with Harden.
To unleash him, the Rockets famously went with a smallball lineup. The first game played entirely centerless was against the Lakers, a 10-point Rockets win when Westbrook made 17 of 28 shots to score 41 points in Los Angeles.
When he crashed in the playoffs, Westbrook came to believe he could only be his best by playing as he always had, with the ball in his hands and running the offense, leading to the trade request after the season and the Rockets’ deal to send him to the Wizards.
With the Lakers, he could excel the same way he did with the Rockets. And other than removing Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan from the lineup when James and Westbrook are on the floor together, the Lakers do not have to downsize to do it.
As they showed in that postseason series against the Rockets and on many occasions since, they can have Anthony Davis when he returns from injury serve as their sole big man, allowing Westbrook to attack the open lane.
The Lakers might have indicated that is what they had in mind on Tuesday when they started James as their sort-of center. He and Westbrook set screens for one another. Both had triple-doubles, with Westbrook relentlessly going downhill as he did with the Rockets, making 10 of 17 shots, including two 3s to score 24 points with 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
In a small lineup, they can even squeeze another shooter on the floor with him if they can find one able to knock down shots consistently and play a little defense.
James is more than willing to play facilitator. Westbrook will not admit a need to change, but he has changed before.
The scrutiny is greater with the Lakers and with James than it can be anywhere else. There are many reasons — defense, shooting, age — that the Lakers might fall far short of their expectations. Westbrook might not turn things around. But the assumptions that it cannot work are no different than they were two years ago.
“Everybody wants me to do this, but then they don’t want me to do this,” Westbrook said. “Honestly, I’m over the whole situation with what everyone else wants me to do and what they think I should be doing.”