Going into Game 4, the beat-up Nuggets had a lot of reasons to fold like a lawn chair and start packing their bags for Cancún. Instead, they showed the heart of a champion.
With their backs against the wall, the Nuggets snuck out of the Intuit Dome on Saturday Afternoon with a season-saving 101-99 win thanks to a magnificent performance by Nikola Jokic, and Aaron Gordon's improbable last-second put-back dunk.
The Nuggets had a multitude of heroic performances from four of their five starters to help them pull out the gutty win and tie the series up at two games apiece. Jokic carried the team on his back, and his line 36-21-8 will forever be remembered amongst his greatest playoff masterpieces.
Christian Braun had his best two-way game of the series and got under the skin of fake tough guy James Harden. And while Aaron Gordon was the hero, I thought Michael Porter's phenomenal shotmaking was the difference in the game.
Another aspect of the game has to be attributed to someone who didn't play. Before Saturday's Game, the Nuggets ruled out Russell Westbrook due to a foot injury he suffered warming up before Game 3.
An intriguing stat started circulating on Twitter right before tip-off, after the Westbrook news was announced.
After their win in Game 4, their record this season is now 8-0 without Russ, which raises an important question.
Are the Nuggets better if Russ doesn't play at all?
It's probably too simplistic to say that Denver won because of the absence of Russ.
However, I thought one of the biggest reasons Jokic had his best game of the series had to do with the spacing around him. Jokic played against more single coverage yesterday than he did in the other three games, in part because the Clippers were unable to bring doubles off Westbrook in the minutes those two would usually share.
Despite their lack of productivity, the other guys Denver brought off the bench on Sunday didn't provide spacing problems. Jalen Pickett is a near 40% shooter from three, and Peyton Watson, while not a good shooter, spent a lot of his minutes in the dunker's spot.
The Clippers have shown time and time again that they have less respect for Westbrook's three-point shooting than a class of middle schoolers has for a substitute teacher. In general, I think the Nuggets are a way better offensive team without him on the floor. Yet, the Nuggets still need him, which is part of the bigger issue.
The Nuggets have zero depth
The Nuggets' bench is horrendous, and there is no way of sugarcoating it. Vlatko Cancar somehow managed to be a -5 in only two minutes of action, and it felt worse than that. Pickett looks like someone too scared to try anything at the risk of getting benched, and Peyton Watson still has too many offensive possessions where he looks like a deer in the headlights.
David Adelman rode the starters to near exhaustion as every Nuggets starter played at least 42 minutes. By the 4th quarter, they looked gassed, which was a huge reason why the Clippers stormed back and nearly stole the game.
I don't think the Nuggets are going to win another game in this series if they can't get more than four bench points, which leads to Denver's biggest issue. Their offense becomes ten times easier to stop when Westbrook enters the game, but the bench is so bad that he is still needed.
So, back to the stat. If the Nuggets are 8-0 without Westbrook, but they still desperately need him to come back from injury, what does that say about them?
Well, if this were the NCAA tournament and the games were 40 minutes long, the Nuggets would still have a puncher's chance at a deep playoff run. But it's not, and they are still reliant on a guy with more flaws than strengths. Russell Westbrook is still Denver's best option off the bench, which spells doom for a team that is merely treading water.