Nuggets ride the full Russell Westbrook experience in Game 1 win

DENVER — The Los Angeles Clippers know the Russell Westbrook experience all too well; it’s part of the reason their playoff run only last five games last spring. On Saturday, the Nuggets bottled Westbrook’s wildness and unleashed it late against the Clippers, propelling a 15-point comeback overtime 112-110 win filled with clutch plays and questionable decisions from the future Hall of Famer.

Westbrook became the first player since play-by-play started getting tracked in 1997 to have three made shots in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter of a playoff that took his team from trailing to leading. He also hit the biggest shot of the game, a corner three at the tail end of regulation, and made the game-clinching defensive stop.

He also missed a forced wild layup down the stretch, couldn’t get a shot off in the final possession of regulation, and took and missed a completely unnecessary layup with time on the clock and the Nuggets up late in overtime.

The good trumped the bad in Game 1 for Westbrook and the Nuggets against his old team.

“Russ is Russ, defensively, he was absolutely incredible; he was playing free safety out there. I thought a lot of the reasons why the turnovers happened, even if it wasn’t him forcing it, was just because of the way he was roaming around and impacting the game. It was great for us,” Nuggets interim head coach David Adelman said of Westbrook and the Nuggets forcing 20 Clippers turnovers. “Offensively, a couple times I thought he attacked, we maybe could’ve pulled it out and executed, but that’s what Russ does, he’s going to play in attack mode. I don’t think he’s going to change the way he plays after 17 years.”

Even Adelman admitted the good came with some of that bad, but is firm with his choice to close with the former MVP over the Nuggets’ starting small forward, Michael Porter Jr., who struggled.

“He made an enormous three in the fourth,” Adelman said. “We have to make shots when they triple and quadruple Jamal and Nikola. You can come up with all these schemes and change the stuff, but they’re going to bring bodies and we have to finish or we have to hit shots to do something special.”

To chase exceptional, the Nuggets will need Westbrook to make a positive impact, which he already proved can be a chaotic gamble. But maybe he summed it up best.

“My job is to find ways to, excuse my language, but (mess things) up,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook did just that on the Clippers’ last gasp, where he tipped the ball off Harden to secure the Nuggets’ win. He said he knew the play from his days playing with the Clippers. Last season, he was a big reason Los Angeles struggled in the postseason as he shot 13 of 50 and was off the floor for much of the decisive Game 5.

“I think there are a few missed easy layups, but he made a big three,” Nikola Jokic said of Westbrook. “He was really good in transition for us. He was aggressive. He had a couple of offensive rebounds, too, the big one. So he had a big steal at the end. So that’s who he is.”

“I don’t think it was just that three, though,” Jamlal Murray said. He makes a lot of winning plays, stuff that doesn’t show up in the stat sheet. I don’t just watch the shots that he makes. He was 5-of-17, and it doesn’t matter to me.”

Westbrook finished with 15 points on 5-of-17 shooting over 34 minutes of action. He added eight rebounds, four of them on offense, and three assists to go with two steals.

GAME ON THE LINE.
NEEDED A STOP.
RUSS CAME THROUGH.

Denver takes a 1-0 series lead in the first round of the #NBAPlayoffs presented by Google 😤 https://t.co/ufV9oCFVYt pic.twitter.com/UaQLlmN9QW

— NBA (@NBA) April 19, 2025