Russell Westbrook 'Absolutely' Thinks Coming off Lakers Bench Led to Hamstring Injury

According to Russell, coming off the bench in the preseason finale against the Kings led to his injury.

"I've been doing the same thing for 14 years straight and I was a bit lost when I was asked to come off the bench." I had no idea what to do before. I was trying to find a way to stay warm.

The starting lineup for Tuesday's season- opening 123-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors had Russell Westbrook in it.

During the preseason, Ham did not get to see much of Westbrook off the bench. He was not going to risk it in a preseason game.

After Tuesday's loss to Golden State, Ham said he wanted to establish a firm starting five, but when asked if he would continue to start, he was non-committal.

For the 1,005th time in his 15-year NBA career, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook started a game. He hasn't come off the bench in a regular-season game since he did so 17 times in the first year of his career.

While the Lakers struggled as a whole against Golden State, they had a solid individual performance from Russell Westbrook, who scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting to go along with three assists and one steal.

It was the second-best plus-minus rating of any Lakers starter Tuesday, which was better than both James and Davis.

The Lakers' failures and inability to make the playoffs caused much of the blame for that to fall on the shoulders of Russell.

The one-time NBA Most Valuable Player didn't play up to his usual standards, and it wasn't helped by the fact that he and AD both missed time with injuries.

It's possible the Lakers would have preferred to move on from him, but he exercised his $47 million player option. Even if the Lakers want to get a deal done, it's hard to trade for a player of that size.

Ham is tasked with making a combination that can thrive this season after last season's struggles.

In order to maximize his talents on different units, it's possible to bring him off the bench, but his comments suggest he doesn't want to fall out of the starting lineup.