The Denver Nuggets took a 1-0 lead in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers with a 112-110 overtime win in Ball Arena on Saturday. Russell Westbrook made some huge clutch plays in the win, including forcing a game-clinching turnover, and spoke about his role on defense postgame.
“They have a dynamic roller in [Ivica Zubac] and great cutters and guys that catch lobs,” Westbrook said. “And my job is to be the low man and find ways to, excuse my language, but f*** s*** up.”
That’s exactly what Westbrook did. The 36-year-old also revealed he knew the play the Clippers were going to run as he had been with the team the last two seasons, which enabled him to force that turnover.
Westbrook has cost the Nuggets some games this season with late-game blunders, but he delivered in the big moments against the Clippers. The nine-time All-Star had 15 points (5-17 FG), eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals on the night. He scored nine of those 15 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Nuggets in the game.
Westbrook’s activity on defense is what stood out here, though. The Clippers committed 20 turnovers in total on the night, and interim head coach David Adelman stated postgame that the former MVP caused a lot of them.
“Russ is Russ,” Adelman said. “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 the way he was roaming around and impacting the game. It was great for us.
“And then offensively, a couple of times he attacked, maybe could have pulled it out and executed, but that’s what Russ does,” Adelman added. “He’s going to play in attack mode. 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 three in the fourth.”
Adelman was referring to Westbrook hitting a huge three-pointer to give the Nuggets a 98-96 lead in the closing moments of regulation. He obviously isn’t a great outside shooter, but he delivered when it mattered most.
Westbrook was also asked postgame if this win meant a bit more, as it was against his former team.
“Nah, not until we win the series,” Westbrook said. “We can talk about that when we take care of business. That’s a tough team over there. They’ve been playing very, very well the past month or so. We did our job, we didn’t do nothing special.”
All the Nuggets did was hold serve here at home. It didn’t look like they were going to when they went down by as many as 15 points in the first half, but they managed to storm back and win. The Clippers showed here why many are fancying them to win this series, and they’d be backing themselves to steal homecourt advantage in Game 2 at Ball Arena on Monday at 10 PM ET.
