After watching Damian Lillard have one of the most impressive games of the season and will the Portland Trail Blazers to victory on Saturday night by scoring 59 points. For the Denver Nuggets, the rules were simple: lose the game and the season is over, win and give yourself another chance to make the postseason.

On Sunday afternoon, Denver had to face the most likely winner of this year’s MVP award Russell Westbrook. If just trying to win the game wasn’t enough, there was added incentive on the probable MVP’s agenda, get one more triple-double and break the record that Oscar Robertson has held for quite some time on most triple-doubles in a season.

Before the game, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone spoke on that such record and if breaking it against Denver means anything to him.

“If we get a win and he breaks the record, so be it.”

Well, only one of those things happened, as history was made in the Mile High City as Russell Westbrook got his 42nd triple double of the season, surpassing Oscar Robertson on this play to Semaj Christon.

https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/851209213506453504

As if that wasn’t enough, Denver also lost 106-105, despite holding a 12-point lead midway through the fourth quarter. With two seconds left on the clock and the Thunder down 103-105, it was Oklahoma City who had the chance to completely steal the show and, well…”Westbrook gonna Westbrook.”

Westbrook finished with the stat-line of 50 points, 10 assist and 16 rebounds, putting the exclamation point on a historic day, but he also closed the book on any dialogue about who the MVP was of the year, including this game winning shot from almost half-court that sent the Pepsi Center crowd into a frenzy.

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/851213599670489088

Despite the loss, the Nuggets got all that they could out of Danillo Gallinari, who did everything he could to deliver his team a victory. He finished with 34 points on an efficient 12-of-20 from the field.

Jokic added 23 points, 6 rebounds and three assists.

With the loss, the Denver Nuggets were officially eliminated from the playoff race. Though there is two games left in the campaign, their season is essentially over.

“When you look at all of the positives, all the improvement, all of the growth, this is definitely a season that we can feel good about,” said Malone. “We’re heading in the right direction, we’re improving in a lot of areas and now we have to make sure we address the areas that we struggled in.”

Defense was one of the main emphasis that Malone said he hopes to address heading into next season. This was another game that the Nuggets looked to have all wrapped up but still managed to lose.

“It was a very tough loss,” Said Malone prior to the game. “As many plays as he made down the stretch I truly feel as if we lost this game.”

After such a tough loss, with playoff hopes no longer alive, what Malone said he’ll do is encourage his players to keep playing hard and try and go out on somewhat of a high note.

“We have two more games.”

They play Dallas Mavericks and also the Thunder again. This time, most likely without Russell Westbrook.