Russell Westbrook had his best game on Wednesday night since joining the Los Angeles Lakers and it wasn’t without interesting moments.
Westbrook, of course, has been the subject of much criticism due to his disappointing play so far this season. He has one of the loosest handles in the NBA, averaging a league-worst 5.2 turnovers per game. In fact, since he came into the league in 2008, no one has more lost ball turnovers than the guard has recorded.
He very clearly didn’t want to give fans any more reasons to pick apart his performance, so rather than succumbing to what would have likely otherwise been a turnover, he didn’t give up on one funny possession.
Westbrook tried to keep the play going 😅 pic.twitter.com/tiGd5StCQw
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 18, 2021
He stayed close to the floor, and like someone who is trying out a trick in practice or on the schoolyard, he pushed against the ball until he had enough leverage to get it to rise and levitate.
Once he had a firm grip on the ball, rather than passing it out to a teammate, Westbrook went for a quick pull-up that didn’t land. Overall, it was a fairly hard play to watch without giggling at least a little bit.
But what I’m curious about is how the tracking stats accounted for the bizarre breakdown. The 33-year-old is averaging a team-high 4.4 dribbles per touch in 2021-22.
It’s unclear how many dribbles were counted in that possession, however, as the ball didn’t exactly leave the ground. Should these count as dribbles? I’d think not, but if so, he’s spiking the numbers!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01evcfkb10bw5a3nky image=https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=1216835]