After losing to the Atlanta Hawks, the Boston Celtics bounced back and bounced back big in their blowout 130-108 win against the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite having LeBron James back after missing eight games, the damage was too much to recover from. As usual, their loss came with its consequences. Russell Westbrook, as usual, had to bear the brunt of most of it.

Russell Westbrook has been the center of criticism ever since the season began. Apart from a select few games, his contribution to the scoreboard, and even overall, has barely met expectations. This has annoyed fans to an extent that they have already started to request for his trade.

Westbrook’s addition was supposed to be their best shot at coming back as title contenders in the 2021-22 NBA campaign, but that has hardly been the case. His inability to step up in LeBron’s absence, the sole responsibility he had when he came to the Lakers, is making fans and everybody else furious.

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And for those who anyway believed that this is a trio that won’t work as well on court as it does on paper, are sitting back and enjoying the show. Much like tonight’s game against the Boston Celtics, in which Russ only scored a meager 12 points, the mockery started immediately after the match was over in the post-game interview. And former Laker Dennis Schroder couldn’t help but take part by balling out to NBC’s comment, “Y’all paying Russ $44 million lol.” 

Is Russell Westbrook weighing the Lakers down?

The Lakers passed on some players with great potential to land Westbrook. These include Buddy Hield, who has been an asset to the Oklahoma City Thunder, as well as the now Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan.

Putting all their eggs in this basket has hardly worked for the Lakers. The trio that was supposed to take over the West, is hardly taking over the easiest of teams. All worldly expectations that fans had for Westbrook are now down in the dumps. Now, their only saving grace is LeBron James, who has just returned after missing eight games because of an abdominal strain.

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Will Russ continue to be a problem for the purple and gold? Or will this team eventually have a creative way of handling their offense in the games that follow?

WATCH: Dennis Schroder Receives Technical Foul as He Talks Trash to the Lakers Bench