Lakers’ acting coach David Fizdale explains the problem with Russell Westbrook

The Lakers don’t want Russell Westbrook to feel like he needs to play the hero.

Yes, the Lakers are in a bit of a spiral, missing four players and coach Frank Vogel thanks to health and safety protocol. And Anthony Davis spraining his MCL doesn’t help.

But according to David Fizdale, the team’s acting head coach with Vogel out, Westbrook has been trying to do too much.

“I think the circumstances over the last few games, with so many people being in and out, triggered in him that he had to save us,” Fizdale told reporters Wednesday.

The Lakers have lost three games in a row, with the 33-year-old Westbrook committing 13 turnovers in the two since Davis has been hurt.

“Some of his plays, he was probably moving too fast or trying to press when things aren’t there,” Fizdale said. “And again, these are things that we [addressed]. We had a great film session. Guys are very open and receptive and we just talked about connection things.”

The Lakers sit at a disappointing .500 following Monday’s loss to the Suns. They’re missing Kent Bazemore, Avery Bradley, Malik Monk and Austin Reaves due to health protocols, and the status of their Christmas Day game against the COVID-depleted Nets seems up in the air, though Brooklyn got James Harden back on Thursday.

“You’re just taking it and living day-to-day, you just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Carmelo Anthony told reporters. “We could wake up tomorrow morning and they could say our game tomorrow is canceled.”

At the heart of the Lakers’ issues has been an inability for their stars — Westbrook, Davis and LeBron James — to mesh as well as expected. The trio is still learning to play together, and deal with spacing issues that stem from the lack of 3-point shooting when they’re all on the court.

“How do we [get this right]?” Fizdale said, describing the film session on Wednesday. “OK, instead of this play, what can we do within our offensive fundamentals to lead to a great shot for us? How do we use your talent that draws all of these players to make sure that leads to a great shot for us?

“And so that’s what the whole film session was about offensively, and again, a lot of this stuff is connection.”

The Lakers are scheduled to play the Spurs on Thursday night in Los Angeles.