Russell Westbrook had his usual triple-double in the loss against the Brooklyn Nets, but the Los Angeles Lakers missed a bigger input from him in terms of scoring.
The 33-year-old point guard scored just 13 points in 37 minutes of play while making just 4 of his 20 shots and missing all three three-pointers. According to Lakers backup coach David Fizdale, a big part of Westbrook’s shooting woes is him putting pressure on himself.
“Got to keep attacking, that’s who he is. He’s a rim attacking finished and for whatever reason he just missed them,” Fizdale said. “A big part of it is he just wants it so bad. I mean you can see it. I think everybody feels he wants it so bad.
“I just know that’s hard for him when it doesn’t work out and I know he cares like crazy, this is everything to him. And sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.
“But we had a couple other missed layups in the fourth quarter as well that would have just been a game changer for us. I just want him to take a lot of that pressure off himself and just keep attacking and keep playing the way we know he can.”
