Russell Westbrook Talks Team Picking Up Slack Without Durant

Russell Westbrook wsa of course one of the main pillars in a 127117 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, recording 27 points and 11 assists.

In this footage Westbrook speaks highly about the team's performance vs. the Lakers, mainly showing a lot of will especially in the later quarters when the Lakers chopped down the lead to 7.

Although the Thunder have seemed to play pretty well without last year's MVP Kevin Durant, Westbrook was asked about his team "forgetting" about Durant, and Russ immediately stated that the team couldn't forget about the best player on the squad, but players understand their roles and hold each other accountable on a nightly basis.

Speaking of individual performances, Russell continued to speak highly of his teammate, newly acquired Enes Kanter, who has had the burden of filling the role of Serge Ibaka who also is dealing with an injury which required surgery that eventually sidelined the power forward for a month. Kanter had a huge performance in this matchup, scoring 25 points and grabbing 16 boards.

The Thunder face the Spurs Wednesday night in a match-up with lots of playoff implications involved. Big props to sneakerreporter for the exclusive footage!