Russell Westbrook goes back to basics and offers the Nuggets their first glimmer of hope in a win over the Nets

Few games have reflected Russell Westbrook's late-career experience as well as Denver's 144-139 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.

There were a few isolated moments that reminded you why he's playing for his sixth team in seven years. An ugly exchange occurred in the fourth quarter after he challenged Ziaire Williams and got tunnel vision after some trash talk. He even missed a wide-open dunk.

But unlike so many of these viral missteps, this one came in a game in which Westbrook was thriving. He collected 22 points and five assists in 21 minutes. That ugly turnover against Williams was the only one he committed all evening. His defense efforts were tireless. The force with which he threw that ball was absolutely necessary to score the turnover, but there was something so delightful about Westbrook about the sequence. It wasn't enough just to get the ball away from Dorian Finney-Smith. He had to throw it in so hard that it flew off the screen.

The theft seemed somehow symbolic. That's why the Nuggets brought Westbrook to Denver. Yes, they clearly needed an attack on the bench. They only managed four 20-point games all of last season. But they also needed that energy, a reserve that could galvanize an otherwise lifeless bench group that so frequently loses games to Denver's star starters.

Denver lost Westbrook minutes in his first three games by a total of 38 points. They played evenly with him on the floor against Brooklyn on Tuesday. That's enough for Nikola Jokic to do the rest.

Finding that energy is a difficult thing. At worst, Westbrook can just as easily get out of these lineups with questionable shot selection, missed layups that cause transition balls to go the other way, and frustrating fouls. Those were common features of Westbrook's early run in Denver.

But Tuesday was a return to basics for him. The jumpers weren't completely gone, but they were minimized. He only took four of them and made three. Everything else came close to the basket, and he notably reached the free throw line 10 times. That's as many attempts as he had in his first three games combined. The best version of Westbrook is the one who rushes toward the basket with reckless abandon, and she's the one most likely to bring energy to the otherwise joyless reserve units.

Without Westbrook, Denver won't beat Brooklyn on Tuesday. The Nuggets almost always lose games because of reserves rather than winning them, and even if Westbrook's median is closer to the first three games than the fourth, there's something to be said about having a player on your roster who can do that can lead to wild deviations.

For many teams, it would be untenable for a player to struggle so much early on three-quarters of the time. For Denver, the bench has been bad for so long that hoping for the remaining 25% of swing games was worth a cheap gamble. At least on Tuesday, this gamble paid off. Only time will tell if this is the case in the long run.