Russell Westbrook made his debut with the LA Clippers and received high praise from Paul George and Tyronn Lue afterwards.
The former NBA MVP joined the Clippers on Wednesday and made his debut just two days later. He got a standing ovation pregame and was a starter for his new team after playing as a reserve with the Lakers all season.
Westbrook finished the game with 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting along with 14 assists, seven turnovers and five rebounds in 39 minutes. He couldn’t lead his team to the victory, as the Sacramento Kings escaped Crypto.com Arena with an 176-175 double OT win.
“It’s about what I imagined and the reason why I was high on Russ being a part of this team,” Paul George said, after reuniting with Russell Westbrook. The two played together in Oklahoma City for two years (2017-19).
Meanwhile, Tyronn Lue said he played Westbrook in crunch time because of his playmaking skills and familiarity with George, with reserve guard Terrance Mann playing only 18 minutes off the bench.
“I thought he was great,” Lue said of Russell Westbrook. “Still learning the offense, still learning where guys like the basketball, running the plays and things like that. I thought he did a really good job.”
The Kings (34-25) now are two games ahead of the Phoenix Suns (33-28) and 2,5 games ahead of the Clippers (33-29) for third place in the West standings with 23 regular-season games remaining.
