Los Angles Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook has had a tough time in the past season. And unfortunately, his poor run continued in the pre-season games and the few opening encounters of the team. During this, Westbrook has been subjected to heavy criticism, and questions were even raised to even his place on the Lakers\’ side. However, luckily the player has gained his form back in the past few games. Although still, the team is ending up on the losing side more often than not. Therefore, many people started to question whether LeBron James\’ shooting is the team\’s real problem.
Is Russell Westbrook Performing Better Than LeBron James?
For a while now, the Los Angeles Lakers\’ side has been built around LeBron James and Anthony Davis. However, Davis has been troubled by everlasting injury concerns in the past two years. On the other hand, as much as LeBron\’s fans want to deny this, the truth is that James\’ shooting has not been good enough for his team to cross the line.
The Lakers have had a dismal start to the current season, dropping seven of their first nine games. The Lakers\’ two victories have given them a fleeting flash of hope, but on the whole, they don\’t appear to be a playoff club. After losing to the Utah Jazz, coach Darvin Ham pointed to the defense as a significant contributor to the issue. But the overall issue with the team and its lack of shooting continue to be the largest problem.
There is no denying the fact that three-pointer shots are increasingly becoming a deciding factor in modern-day basketball. Meanwhile, the same has been a particular area of concern for the Lakers. The team\’s leading shooter LeBron is currently playing his twentieth season. And perhaps the age factor has eventually started to catch up with him.
Since he joined the Lakers last season, Russell Westbrook has been made the scapegoat for the team\’s problems. But the stats are now beginning to make this challenging. Russ\’ performance has improved significantly while moving to the bench. He outperforms LeBron James in one unexpected facet of the game. On the other hand, LeBron James has scored an average of 24 points per game through 8 games this season. This is six less than he did the previous year.
It looks like LeBron James simply isn\’t capable of scoring as effectively as Westbrook has been good for the team in the past few games. Apparently, the Los Angeles Lakers have a lot of reason to be concerned, even if Russ\’ statistics are still below average by league standards.