Lakers’ Russell Westbrook And Darvin Ham Had A Heated Exchange Last Night At Halftime

Last night the Lakers lost a close game 133-130 at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The night will be remembered for LeBron James breaking the all-time scoring record but a win yesterday would have made it much sweeter. It was an historic night for James and the NBA world as a whole. However, what fans didn’t see was Russell Westbrook and head coach Darvin Ham get into a heated exchange during halftime in the locker room. 

With the trade deadline ending tomorrow at 3:00pm EST, was Westbrook trying to send a message to his head coach and the front office? Or is this just another case of the media reading into every word and movement that Lakers players make. That’s the disadvantage of playing in one of the biggest NBA markets in the world. Someone’s always watching.

California Sports Betting sites have the Lakers at (+2500) to win the Finals this season.

Russell Westbrook and Darvin Ham had a “heated verbal exchange” during halftime of the Lakers-Thunder game, per @wojespn

Ham was frustrated with how Westbrook “lingered” on the court after being subbed out in the second quarter pic.twitter.com/nSGDdvL21N

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 8, 2023

Westbrook and his head coach had a heated exchange at halftime yesterday

Late in the second quarter of last night’s game, head coach Darvin Ham subbed Russell Westbrook out of the game late in the second quarter. Westbrook “lingered” off the court after he was taken out and his coach did not like his attitude afterwards.

That is what reportedly got Ham angry and lead to the heated exchange between the two in the locker room at half. Voices were raised but the matter seemed to be resolved on the spot and the attention went back to winning the game. After the game, media saw the two dapped up up and nothing more happened.

You wouldn’t have even known the two were angry with each other and Ham did not let it effect his coaching decisions. Westbrook even played a season-high 14 minutes in the fourth quarter last night and had 14 of his 27 points scored there as well.

The former MVP’s name has been brought up in trade talks for months now and the Lakers would need to act fast if they want to make a move. Teams like the Utah Jazz have had reported interest in potentially trading for Westbrook but nothing has happened yet.