Russell Westbrook believes in nuggets better than thunder despite record

There are many ways to describe Russell Westbrook’s brilliance on the floor, but perhaps the best word to wrap it around is: Confidence. Sure, the Hall of Fame-destined point guard was one of the best elite athletes the NBA has ever seen with rim-rattling dunks that shut down darts down the floor, and he’s a relentless competitor who made history every night in Bricktown, but his confidence has consistently stood out.

The thing about confidence is that delusion isn’t far behind. Routinely throughout Westbrook’s career, he has let his confidence rub off on his emotions and take over his game for better or worse. The damage to his resume in that regard includes his last two playoff runs in Oklahoma City, where personal struggles ultimately saw him lose lopsided wars to Ricky Rubio and Damian Lillard, who outplayed the Thunder legend en route to series victories.

That confidence has never wavered, however, even with the NBA world unfairly ridiculing and scapegoating him at every turn since his departure from Oklahoma City. Tonight was a shining example of confidence boosting his game as the veteran guard posted an impressive 29 points on just five misses, going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and 6-for-8 at the charity stripe. Westbrook also grabbed six rebounds, six assists and dished out a steal to help Denver hand Oklahoma City its first loss of the season, 124-122.

After the game, however, Westbrook’s confidence quickly turned to delusion as he said “Right now they got the best record, but I feel like we got a better team and tonight we showed that,” after beating the Thunder.

Denver drags the regular season to an even 1-1 record and all it took to win was another home game, an outlier night from a 35-year-old point guard, a nearly 20-20 triple-double from Jokic and two Nuggets had the games of their lives, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had eight turnovers and Chet Holmgren had more misses than makes.

That’s certainly a recipe for success and more Nuggets wins by two points. Neither team came into tonight healthy with Denver down Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon and the Thunder missing Isaiah Hartenstein, Kenich Williams and Jaylin Williams.

While the 5-3 Nuggets needed something to cheer about after working their way through wins over Toronto and Brooklyn, it might be a little premature to stake their claim atop the Western Conference.

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