Russell Westbrook was at the center of attention after he struggled with his shot in the loss against the Brooklyn Nets. Los Angeles Lakers superstar made just 4 of his 20 shots and missed all 3 of his three-pointers.

After that game, Lakers backup coach David Fizdale said that Westbrook is putting too much pressure on himself and that that is a big part of his struggles.

The topic came up again during a recent press conference. “We’re all in this together figuring it out and none of this is for [Russell Westbrook] to figure it out alone,” Fizdale said. “We don’t want to leave him on any kind of island to figure out anything by himself.

“What we are encouraging him to do is what he said – he’s got to be himself. Within that framework good things will come out of it. A lot of people’s making the noise about the missed layups and stuff but as a coach if I got Russell Westbrook at the rim for layups, I’m living with whatever happens because that’s where you want him. You want him in the paint all night long.

“He had 17 shots in the paint, that’s big time. He always gets all of these other criticisms and stuff. He took three/four jump shots in the game and got 17 shots in the paint. And that’s big time for us and for him to have 11 assists, get us five extra possessions on offensive rebounds. That’s the stuff as a coach as you go through the process of watching the film of course you’re gonna coach the things that we need him to be better at, fundamental stuff, things like that.

“But we’re gonna keep showing him the highlights and where we need him to be as Russell Westbrook in the paint, at the rim, making plays for teammates, getting to the foul line, putting other people’s best players in foul trouble, really getting the ball spread around the guys and getting people involved.

“And defensively he competed his tail off too. I get it it’s a lot of scrutiny on him and stuff like that but we’re going to all figure this thing out together and it starts with him just being himself.”