Russell Westbrook, point guard who moved from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Los Angeles Clippers, is a UCLA legend and a Long Beach native who, as Heavy.com's Sean Dwinnie writes, seems to have found more footing at the new club than the previous team. Tonight at the Crypto.com arena, Westbrook's Clippers beat the Lakers 125-118, even though the Clippers led by more than seven points for most of the game.
There is no doubt that Westbrook sees this as a reward for the Lakers, who dropped him on the February 9 trade deadline (well, he was waived on the 8th). He signed a remaining annual contract with the Clippers and has been the team's starting point guard ever since. He's a better fit for the Clippers, a team with more nimble defenders and better three-point shooting than the pre-trade Lakers had to offer.
"Model citizen, really," a Clippers source told Westbrook with his new Los Angeles team's behavior. "He helps the young players, he's good in the dressing room and everyone likes him. He is comfortable and is appearing.
"I never knew he was a locker room problem or anything like that," one NBA executive said of Westbrook, who was called a vampire by Lakers sources after being traded. "No matter if you don't like his game, he's always where you want him to leave the pitch.
"(The Clippers) let Westbrook be Westbrook, that's what a lot of us have been saying," an assistant coach in the Western Conference told Dwinny. "The Lakers brought him in, tried to make him a different player, tried to force him to be a player he couldn't be. This led to a lot of problems between them. But the Lakers let him dry there.
If the battle for Los Angeles ends up happening in this year's playoffs (which, to be fair, seems unlikely), you know Westbrook will be ready.