Nuggets’ Russell Westbrook sets surprising career high vs. Knicks

The Denver Nuggets may have been laughed off the court by the New York Knicks on Monday night in a 145-118 defeat, but one of, if not the only, silver lining in this crushing loss was the performance of veteran point guard Russell Westbrook. Westbrook got off to a slow start, as did the entire Nuggets team, but when Denver seemingly threw in the towel in the fourth quarter and brought in all bench players, the future Hall of Famer went to work.

Westbrook scored 24 of his 27 points on the night in the fourth quarter alone; he made eight of his 11 field-goal attempts in the period, and he at least made the Nuggets competitive in a game that was otherwise already decided in favor of the Knicks. And with that, the 36-year-old point guard set a career high in a rather surprising way.

According to StatMuse on X (formerly known as Twitter), the 24 points Westbrook scored in a single quarter. good for most points he has scored in a single quarter in his entire career. The Nuggets guard simply went on a heater, and with the team’s big guns riding the bench after a lackluster performance, he had the greenest light as the team’s best playmaker and scorer on the floor — and he responded with an excellent quarter, even if it meant little in the ballgame big scheme.

Much has been made of Westbrook’s decline; many question how productive he can be moving forward, especially for a Nuggets team with high contending ambitions. But one guarantee that Westbrook brings to the table is that he will play with boundless energy on a nightly basis, and that resulted in an incredible quarter that would have allowed the Nuggets to get back into the game had they not been looked lifeless on defense the whole game.

Russell Westbrook is turning back the clock despite the Nuggets’ terrible night

Russell Westbrook stayed only the third player age 36 or older to score 24 points or more in a single quarter, joining the likes of Michael Jordan and Jamal Crawford. The Nuggets guard managed to turn back the clock, even for a short period of time.

In the fourth quarter, Westbrook got himself into an excellent rhythm after getting to the basket for his first two baskets of the period. From that point on, the Nuggets veteran made four jump shots, three of which were three-pointers, and he also made an impressive left-and-one layup after cutting through the middle of the defense.