Russell Westbrook makes NBA history against the Brooklyn Nets

The Denver Nuggets picked up their second win of the NBA season on Tuesday night, defeating the Brooklyn Nets in overtime. Denver trailed by as many as 17 points in that game, but made the comeback and defeated Brooklyn 144-139.

Veteran point guard Russell Westbrook had his best performance of the season in this game, scoring 22 points and providing five assists in just 21 minutes of play. The nine-time NBA All-Star made all ten of his free throw attempts and both of his three-point attempts.

According to Basketball Reference's StatHead, this was Westbrook's 739th career game with at least 20 points (including playoffs), tying NBA legend Charles Barkley for 27th all-time.

This is just one way Westbrook made NBA history in this game, as he also tied for the 25th most games scored with at least 20 points and five assists off the bench (via StatHead).

Westbrook climbs up this list despite only playing 127 games as a backup in his career. To illustrate, Westbrook's 16 career games with at least 20 points and five assists off the bench are on par with NBA legend Dan Majerle, who made 501 career appearances as a reserve.

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone named Westbrook Defensive Player of the Game following this win.

In his 17th NBA season, Westbrook showed Tuesday that he is still capable of making an impact with his scoring, playmaking and defense.

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