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They stood up and pointed their phones at the superstar in the orange jersey.

Each possession for Oklahoma City in the fourth quarter Sunday was a chance to make history. So the fans at the Pepsi Center, even those cheering for the Nuggets, roared when Thunder guard Russell Westbrook tallied the assist that gave him his record-setting 42nd triple-double of the season.

Then they moaned as Westbrook聽buried a ridiculous 36-foot shot that ended the Nuggets’ season.

This shot:

A) Won the game

B) eliminated Denver from the playoffs

C) gave Westbrook 50 points

D) all of the above

— NBA.com (@NBAcom)

Westbrook completed his record third 50-point triple-double of the season by nailing a contested 3-pointer聽at the buzzer that handed the Nuggets a 106-105 loss and officially exterminated their playoff hopes.

“He might have just locked up the MVP with that one right there,” Nuggets guard Gary Harris said.

The Nuggets led by 10 points with less than three minutes left. Then the game, and subsequently their season, began to unravel.

BOX SCORE:

Westbrook secured his triple-double, breaking the record established by Oscar Robertson in 1962, with a pass to Semaj Christon that cut Denver’s lead to 10 points with a little more than four minutes left. Westbrook was just getting started

Westbrook, who finished with 50 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, cut the deficit to five points after hitting three straight free throws assessed as a result of flagrant and technical fouls by 聽with 1:56 remaining.

Jokic’s infraction against Westbrook was initially called a common foul. It was upgraded to a flagrant after a video review. Then, Jokic was hit with a technical foul by referee Ken Mauer.

“I asked him, ‘Why?’ and he told me, ‘I don’t want to talk to you,’ ” Jokic said. “I said, ‘OK,’ and walked away as Westbrook was shooting, and I get a technical. If I get a technical for saying OK, I’m good with that.”

“Kenny Mauer said, ‘We told him to walk away and he didn’t,’ ” Nuggets coach Michael Malone added. “That was the explanation I got. My thing to Kenny was, with two minutes left to go in the game, that’s a tough call to make, in my opinion, when the game is hanging in the balance. It wasn’t anything demonstrative. It wasn’t anything cursing. It wasn’t anything over the top. He called it. He must have felt it was the right call.”

Jokic聽hit two free throws on Denver’s next possession to push the lead to seven points, but he committed a turnover and then missed a 3-pointer with less than one minute left. The Nuggets kept missing chances to put the game way, undone by a lack of execution down the stretch. That was a major culprit in the team missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

Westbrook was fouled on a 3-point attempt and knocked down all three shots to cut the lead to 105-101 with 47.4 seconds left. After was called for an offensive foul on Denver’s next possession, Westbrook quickly sliced to the basket for a layup that trimmed the lead to 105-103 with 27.1 seconds left. Jokic missed a runner on the Nuggets’ last possession, and Westbrook collected the rebound with 2.9 seconds left to set up one more shot for Oklahoma City.

The rest of was more history for Westbrook in a聽season full of it.

“I don’t know what to say,” Jokic said. “He hit a crazy shot. Jamal (Murray) was right there and he hit the shot. That’s what an MVP does.”

Danilo Gallinari, who might have played his final home game with the Nuggets, exploded for 22 of his season-high 34 points in the third quarter to help the Nuggets open a 13-point lead. Gallinari has a player option in his contract heading into next season. The veteran forward could opt out of the $16.1 million on the last year of his deal and test the free-agency market.

But Gallinari was scoreless in the fourth quarter as the Nuggets managed just 14 points, shooting 6-of-17 from the field and committing six turnovers.

As Denver coughed up the lead, moving their season toward extinction, Westbrook was there to push the Nuggets over the edge.

“As many plays as he made down the stretch,” Malone said, “I truly feel like we lost this game.”