"When we lose, we all lose" - LeBron James refuses to throw Russell Westbrook under the bus, emphasizes strength in unity

LeBron James simply refuses to throw Russell Westbrook under the bus. Two days after Westbrook posted a season-low five points on 1-of-10 shooting in the LA Lakers' 122-115 overtime victory against the New York Knicks, LeBron has spoken up for the 33-year-old superstar point guard once again.

Heading into Tuesday night's contest against the Milwaukee Bucks, LeBron told the media in full support of Westbrook:

“We can't control the narrative about what's going on in the media or what's going on on social media. There's always rumblings and conversations that's going to be had every single trade deadline. It happens every single year. It happens... For me as a brother to Russ, at the end of the day, I only care about his state of mind... how his well-being is, how his family is doing. You put the work in, the game will translate."

The 37-year-old veteran added:

"We all in the foxhole together. There is not one guy who is doing it by themself. There’s not one guy you can blame over another guy. There’s not one guy who gets the praise over another guy. When we lose, we all lose. When we win, we all win.”

"I have the utmost confidence in his ability," says LeBron James immediately after Russell Westbrook's horrid shooting game versus New York Knicks

LeBron James wasted no time in coming out in support of Russell Westbrook after the latter's disastrous shooting game against the Knicks. Here's what LeBron told the media after Westbrook sat out the entire overtime period versus New York:

"I told him to text me later. I told him to keep going, stop second-guessing himself... He's an instinctive player, with what he's done in this league, he should never second guess himself... I have the utmost confidence in his ability."

The contest against New York on Saturday was Russell Westbrook's second-worst shooting game of the season. The only other time Westbrook has had a worse shooting game for the purple-and-gold franchise this season was when he went 1-for-13 (.08%) against the Portland Trail Blazers on 6 November 2021.

The five-point outing versus New York was Westbrook's ninth single-digit game with the LA Lakers. Westbrook is averaging 18.4 ppg on 43.7% shooting from the field in what is his first season with the LA Lakers.