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

Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook said Tuesday night that he "absolutely" believes coming off the bench in the team's preseason finale against the Sacramento Kings led to him suffering a hamstring injury.

According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, Westbrook discussed being somewhat lost when being asked to come off the bench: "I've been doing the same thing for 14 years straight. Honestly, I didn't even know what to do pregame. Being honest, I was trying to figure out how to stay warm and loose. ... That's something I just wasn't accustomed to."

While head coach Darvin Ham was testing the waters to see what Westbrook would look like off the bench, he was in the starting lineup for Tuesday's season-opening 123-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

Ham didn't get to see much of Westbrook off the bench during the preseason, as he played only five minutes against Sacramento. Westbrook noted that he could have played more, but he "wasn't 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 that meant Westbrook would remain a starter, he was non-committal, noting that he is a "day-by-day guy."

The 33-year-old Westbrook, who is in the midst of his 15th NBA season, started for the 1,005th time in 1,022 career regular-season games on Tuesday. He has not come off the bench in a regular-season game since his rookie season with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008-09 when he did so 17 times.

While the Lakers struggled as a whole against Golden State, Westbrook was solid individually, scoring 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, to go along with 11 rebounds, three assists and one steal.

Westbrook also had the second-best plus-minus rating of any Lakers starter Tuesday at minus-6, which was better than both LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Last season, Westbrook absorbed much of the blame for the Lakers' failures and inability to make the playoffs, as L.A. had acquired him in hopes of him forming a "Big Three" with James and Davis.

The one-time NBA MVP did not play up to his usual standards, though, and it didn't help that LeBron and AD both missed significant time with injuries.

It is possible the Lakers would have preferred to move on from Westbrook, but he exercised his $47 million player option for this season. With a salary that large, Westbrook is tough to trade even if the Lakers want to get a deal done.

All of that means Ham is essentially tasked with making a combination that struggled last season into one that can thrive this season.

Bringing Westbrook off the bench in order to maximize both his and LeBron's talents on different units remains an option, but Westbrook's comments suggest he isn't keen on falling out of the starting lineup.