LOS ANGELES — When the Clippers signed Russell Westbrook this week, coach Tyronn Lue said he wasn't expecting miracles from the nine-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer. The Clippers, Lue said, "want Russ to be Russ."
That's what they got on Friday in his debut, a 17-point, 14-assist, seven-turnover performance against Sacramento that wasn't so different from the late stages of his Lakers tenure except that Lue played him during crunch time. Or crunch times, as it turned out.
The question after the Clippers' entertaining but appalling 176-175 double-overtime loss to the Kings wasn't whether Russ will be Russ. It was who do the Clippers want to be?
