Walton wants Russell to play aggressively or rest ailing knee

If Los Angeles Lakers sophomore point guard D'Angelo Russell can't do the things he can normally do on a basketball court when he's 100 percent healthy, head coach Luke Walton would rather not play him at all.

Russell returned to the lineup on Sunday following a one-game absence with a sore left knee, scoring eight points on just 3-of-11 shooting as Los Angeles fell 118-110 to the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center. Nine of his shot attempts came from behind the arc.

"We want him to push and be aggressive," Walton said of Russell on Monday, according to the OC Register's Mark Medina. "You can’t play at this level by favoring it. If that’s the case where it hurts, then we need to shut him down until he’s healthy. The league is too good only to go halfway and show some of the stuff that you can do because you’re concerned that something might hurt."

Russell is averaging three drives per game on the season, but against Chicago, the 20-year-old Ohio State alumnus settled on the perimeter rather than using his agility and speed to get to the rim. This led Walton to believe Russell was in more pain than he was letting on, and even if the player wasn't willing to acknowledge it - which he eventually did - the evidence was there in front of him that something wasn't right.

"I thought he was favoring it a little bit," Walton added. "I don’t know if he was hurt or it was in his head. But it felt like he was floating around the perimeter more than normal."

Russell is listed as questionable for the Lakers' meeting with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night after being held out of practice Monday.

He's currently averaging 16.1 points on a 41.3 percent shooting clip, along with 4.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 26.8 minutes as a starter.