Nuggets get full Russell Westbrook experience in wild Game 1

The Nuggets won a thriller for the ages on Saturday afternoon, beating the Clippers at home in game one, 112-110 in overtime. The Clippers led for almost the entire game, by as much as 15 points, but Denver stuck with it and made all the winning plays down the stretch to take a 1-0 lead in this Western Conference first-round playoff series.

And in a shocking twist, one of the biggest factors in this game for the Nuggets was the play of Russell Westbrook. David Adelman rightfully made the decision to bench Michael Porter Jr. down the stretch and close the game with Westbrook, and he was rewarded with one big play after another.

In terms of the way LA defended Russ, things played out just as planned; they mostly left him alone to go double the Jokic/Murray two-man game, and Russ either flashed to the middle or spotted up, becoming a key playmaker in some of the biggest possessions of the game.

The good: Westbrook hits go-ahead shot, forces winning turnover

Overall, Russ was a major positive, thanks to his relentless energy. He was cutting, flying in transition, and crashing the offensive glass all night. He came away with several monstrous offensive rebounds at times when Denver was struggling to score.

He also had multiple big finishes around the rim, and with under thirty seconds to play and the Nuggets down by one, Kris Dunn left Russ in the corner, and Westbrook confidently buried the three to put the Nuggets up by two points.

Then, in the closing seconds of overtime, with the Nuggets up by three, Russ was all over James Harden on the inbounds pass and forced the ball to go out of bounds off of Harden’s fingers. Westbrook celebrated like crazy, as did Ball Arena, as he had all but sealed the unlikely game one victory for Denver.

The bad: Inefficient high-usage shooting and questionable decisions

And even with all of Westbrook’s excellence, many moments made Nuggets fans hold their breath. He continues to force the issue in transition, attacking when there’s no advantage in his favor. And similarly to the recent T-Wolves disaster, Russ went up to attempt a crazy layup in the final seconds of overtime when the team would have been better suited to run the clock out or wait for a foul.

While he did make that huge three to give the Nuggets the lead, he also missed a lot of shots, going just 5-17 from the floor. That’s an awfully high number of attempts for Westbrook with extremely inefficient results.

Overall: more good than bad Russ in game one

At the end of the day, this Nuggets team is desperate for production behind Jokic and Murray. They have to get it from somewhere, and while it wasn’t always pretty, Westbrook brought a ton of things to this game that were needed for the Nuggets to pull out a win. 15 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals were massive off the bench, and Adelman was smart to close with him. 

His energy was electric and fueled the team at a time when it looked like they may be ready to move on to game two. This may not always be the case, and on nights when Russ is hurting the team more than helping, Adelman has to make that read as well. But at least for one night, Russ was the playoff hero the Nuggets needed.