The Denver Nuggets may have been laughed at by the New York Knicks in a 145-118 loss on Monday night, but one, if not the only, bright spot in that crushing loss was the performance of veteran point guard Russell Westbrook. Westbrook started slowly, much like the entire Nuggets team, but when Denver seemingly threw in the towel in the fourth quarter and used all of its substitutes, the future Hall of Famer got to work.

Westbrook scored 24 of his 27 points that night in the fourth quarter alone; He made eight of his eleven field goal attempts during that period and at least made the Nuggets competitive in a game that was otherwise already decided in the Knicks’ favor. And with that, the 36-year-old point guard surprisingly reached a career high.

According to StatMuse on The Nuggets guard simply turned on a heater, and with the team’s big talents on the bench after a poor performance, he had the green light as the team’s best playmaker and scorer – and responded with a stellar quarter, though it being so meant little in the grand scheme of the ball game.

Much has been made of Westbrook’s decline; Many wonder how productive he can be moving forward, especially for a Nuggets team with lofty goals. But one guarantee that Westbrook brings is that he will play with boundless energy every night, and the result was an incredible quarter that would have allowed the Nuggets to get back into the game if their defense hadn’t been so dead whole game long.

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

Russell Westbrook joined players like Michael Jordan and Jamal Crawford as just the third player age 36 or older to score 24 points or more in a single quarter. The Nuggets guard managed to turn back time, if only for a short time.

In the fourth quarter, Westbrook got into an excellent rhythm after making 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-handed one-up basket shot after cutting through the middle of the defense.