The goal entering Friday night’s preseason finale was for the Lakers to get some intel on how Russell Westbrook looked with the second unit. But Westbrook's lone stint lasted all of five minutes, as he went back to the locker room during the first quarter and was ruled out for the remainder of the game with a left hamstring injury.
That left the Lakers without Westbrook on a night when they were already missing Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker IV, Dennis Schröder, and Troy Brown Jr. Any semblance of a regular rotation went out the door early, and with it, the team’s commitment to playing a winning brand of basketball.