DENVER — With several huge plays down the stretch and in overtime, Russell Westbrook helped sink his former team in their playoff opener.

The former league MVP did it on both ends of the court as the Denver Nuggets erased a 15-point first-half deficit and defeated the Clippers, 112-110 in overtime, on Saturday afternoon in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series.

“My job is to (mess stuff) up,” Westbrook said after he had 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in 34 minutes off the bench, very much messing things up for the Clippers in crunch time.

Westbrook’s first momentum-shifting moment gave the Nuggets a 93-92 edge with less than four minutes left in regulation – their first lead since it was 13-11 in the first quarter. It came on a nifty offensive rebound off a 3-point miss from Christian Braun. Then, with his team down by one with less than 24 seconds to go, he hit a corner 3-pointer for a 98-96 lead before former teammate James Harden used a floater to tie the score and force overtime.

Westbrook’s impact was far from over. In the bonus period, the former UCLA and Leuzinger High star wrestled the ball away for another offensive rebound and earned free throws.

“He was really good in transition for us, he was aggressive,” teammate and three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic said. “He had a couple of offensive rebounds, too, and the big one (in overtime). … That’s who he is.”

Later, the Nuggets found themselves protecting a three-point lead with 10 seconds left. The Clippers were inbounding the ball on the sideline to try to set up a look at an equalizer, but Westbrook tipped the pass from Nicolas Batum off of Harden and out of bounds. That gave the Nuggets the ball and forced the Clippers to foul Jokic for what proved to be the decisive free throws.

Westbrook, 36, said he knew what play was coming after spending most of the previous two seasons playing for Clippers coach Tyronn Lue.

All season long, the Nuggets have at times lived and died with Westbrook’s shooting. As his 5-for-17 effort (2 for 6 from 3-point range) in Game 1 might suggest, sometimes you don’t know which version of the future Hall of Famer you’ll get game to game, minute to minute. On Saturday, none of it mattered until it did.

“A lot of people put a lot of emphasis on missing so many shots,” Westbrook said. “But in the playoffs, all you need to do is just win the game. I don’t give a damn about how many shots you miss, make. Just make winning basketball plays defensively, offensively.”

David Adelman, now 4-0 during his tenure as Nuggets interim head coach, was pleasantly unsurprised with Westbrook’s late surge. His game-sealing tip wasn’t credited as a steal, but he was credited with two other takeaways on a night when the Clippers turned it over 20 times, including an uncharacteristic seven from Kawhi Leonard.

“Russ is Russ. Defensively, he’s absolutely incredible. He was playing free safety out there,” said Adelman, whose team had a 29-9 advantage in points off turnovers. “I thought a lot of the reasons why the turnovers happened, even if it wasn’t him forcing it, (was) just the way he was roaming around and impacting the game.

“And then offensively … he attacked. We maybe could have pulled it out and executed. But that’s what Russ does. I don’t think he’s going to change after 17 years. If he sees somebody in front of him 1-on-1, he’s going to attack. And then he made an enormous 3.”

The Clippers will try to even the series in Game 2 on Monday night, and Westbrook will again look to mess up their plans.

Originally Published: April 19, 2025 at 6:18 PM PDT