Nuggets reserve guard Russell Westbrook tore down the Ball Arena court on Saturday evening, initiating a fast break off a steal with no one between him and the basket. He made sure to put an exclamation point on the coast-to-coast play, too, dunking so emphatically that he earned a technical foul for two prolonged swings around the rim.
Not that the foul dampened the mood. Westbrook’s dunk extended the Nuggets’ lead in a must-win Game 7 against his former team, the Los Angeles Clippers, to a staggering 107-76 advantage midway through the fourth quarter. Instead of protesting the foul, Westbrook headed to the sideline to amp up the raucous Nuggets home crowd.
Westbrook’s steal and celebration embodies the joy of Denver’s breathtaking playoff run, but don’t let the highlight deceive you. The Nuggets’ playoff run has been decided by inches rather than blowouts, and it is the mastery of these clutch moments that is allowing Denver to make series noise in the Western Conference.
Through eight playoff games, Denver has had to prove its merit time and time again.
The Nuggets’ two playoff series so far have each featured a win decided on game-winning shots from forward Aaron Gordon, and even the finale of the Nuggets-Clippers series, a definitive 120-101 Denver win, came at the end of a closely contested series that lasted the maximum of seven games. The final score across that seven-game series: Los Angeles 758, Denver 754. The Nuggets’ upset win in Game 1 against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder continued the trend, with Denver winning by a 121-119 margin.
A 1-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals is a position few would have expected for the Nuggets back in April, when Denver was battling to secure a playoff spot and reeling from the dual firings of head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. Just after the shockwaves of that announcement, I expressed my doubts in the Nuggets’ moves just before the playoffs. The dismissals didn’t make sense for a team that had won the NBA championship just a couple seasons before, one with enough success in the 2024-25 season to be in position for a playoff spot.
The Nuggets won their last three games to secure the fourth seed and home-court advantage in the first round, but a matchup against the healthy Los Angeles Clippers, led by elite players in forward Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, was no easy matchup for a team led by an interim head coach, David Adelman, and dangerously reliant on its superstar, Jokic.
Two developments paved the way for the Nuggets to escape round one with a victory: the supporting cast around Jokic elevated their level of play, and Denver kept its composure in the critical moments of the series. Those two developments were intertwined, too, as Denver found ways to win without Jokic playing at his usual MVP level.
Point guard Jamal Murray, heralded as one of the Nuggets’ best playoff performers all-time, has boosted his point and assist averages from the regular season and scored 43 points in a Denver victory in Game 3. Aaron Gordon, the leading scorer in the Nuggets’ Game 7 win, has improved his points-per-game average from 14.7 to 19.3 to emerge as a reliable third option for Denver’s offense, while guard Christian Braun has been a force on the boards and has brought physicality and hustle to the series. In a development that is borderline unfathomable, Westbrook has become a legitimate three-point shooting threat with a 38.9 percent shooting percentage from long-range, after holding a 32.3 percent clip in the regular season and 30.5 percent clip in his career.
The Nuggets’ Game 7 win highlighted this depth. All five Denver starters scored at least 15 points, led by Braun and Gordon with 20+ point performances. Westbrook added another 16 points off the bench with an incredible five steals, against only two steals. Those statistics could have been even gaudier, but the Nuggets wisely chose to play their reserves for the back half of the fourth quarter with the game’s outcome sealed.
Even with the euphoria of a Game 7 win at home, Denver’s closer victories have defined its run: a 112-110 overtime win in Game 1 against the Clippers, Gordon’s game-winning dunk to take Game 4 and the most recent development, Gordon’s last-second three-pointer to sink top-seeded Oklahoma City.
In the Nuggets’ playoff opener, Jokic led the Nuggets with 29 points, but he did not make a field goal in the final five minutes of regulation or the five-minute overtime period. Instead, Denver’s role players stepped up to the challenge. The visiting Clippers held a 96-95 lead with a minute remaining and forced two Denver missed three-pointers in the Nuggets’ next possession, but Westbrook took the lead right back with 24 seconds on a three-point make to give the Nuggets a two-point lead. Los Angeles answered back to force overtime, but six points from Gordon and a crucial three from Braun ensured that Denver never trailed in the extra period.
In Game 4, the Nuggets’ ability to reset and keep its composure had its greatest test in the form of a 22-point blown lead. Down 87-65 early in the fourth quarter, the Clippers staged a furious rally and took a 96-95 lead on Bogdan Bogdanovic’s make with 1:11 remaining. Jokic’s bucket with 16 seconds remaining appeared to give the Nuggets the score they needed to secure Game 4 and even the series, but the Clippers’ Ivica Zubac answered right back with a make in the post with eight seconds. Jokic led an errant fadeaway fly right before the buzzer, unintentionally setting up Gordon’s dunk for the win. The referees needed extensive replay review to confirm that the ball left Gordon’s fingertips before the buzzer sounded, and Gordon ultimately won the game of inches.
Those challenges paled in comparison to the Nuggets’ Game 1 matchup against Oklahoma City Thunder. While the Thunder had plenty of time to rest after a first-round sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies, Denver had just two days in between the final game of its grueling series against the Clippers and the first game against the best team in the NBA. Yet the Nuggets never let Game 1 get out of reach, even when the Thunder led 115-106 in the final three minutes. Jokic made a pair of shots to pull Denver within a possession in the final minute, but Oklahoma City had full control and capitalized on free-throw attempts and defensive lapses to keep the Nuggets at bay.
With a chance to secure the victory, Thunder big man Chet Holmgren missed both of his free-throw attempts, and suddenly, the Nuggets had a chance for the win with seven seconds left and a 119-118 deficit. Denver couldn’t influence Holmgren’s misses, but the visitors sure capitalized on the opportunity. Braun snatched the loose ball, then initiated the fast break with a pass ahead to Westbrook. The reserve guard, drafted by Oklahoma City in 2008, made a brilliant, split-second decision to fire a pass across the court to an open Aaron Gordon. The veteran forward nailed the shot to stun the Thunder and give the Nuggets a 1-0 lead.
Depth. Timely shooting. Opportunistic play. Resilience. These are traits that the Nuggets lacked in key stretches in the 2024-25 regular season, resulting in one of the most significant shakeups of a championship organization in recent NBA history. Give credit to Adelman for weathering the post-firing turbulence and maximizing the performance from his players, but the Nuggets’ players deserve a wealth of credit too for reaffirming their commitment to their ultimate goals and attacking the playoffs with a renewed, physical mentality.
“(The owner) wanted to change something, to change the energy, and probably he did,” Jokic said, according to ESPN. “He got the result he was looking for.”
In the scope of the entire NBA playoff bracket, Denver’s reversal of fortune is one of the most impactful storylines so far. Winning a 4-5 matchup as the four seed is a solid accomplishment and comforting moral victory, but continuing that momentum and stealing Game 1 from the team with the best regular-season record in the NBA demands the entire league’s attention. It’s a best-of-seven series, so the Nuggets have a long way to go before advancing to the next round. But if the Nuggets advance and upset Oklahoma City, they’ll be the top remaining seed in the Western Conference, one with a championship pedigree and a top-three player in the NBA in Nikola Jokic.
Denver’s buzzer-beaters and thrilling finishes are making the shockwaves of their late-season shakeups a distant memory. That reset, seemingly made with the long-term trajectory of the franchise in mind, has already yielded a first-round victory and the most impressive win of any team in the NBA playoffs so far. More importantly, the changes are reviving a talented but dysfunctional group that is realizing its potential and coalescing in key moments.
Is the run of success sustainable? If the Nuggets continue winning the margins, they will be well on their way to transforming a toxic season into a storybook one.
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