Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon will be in the starting lineup on Sunday in Game 7 against the Oklahoma City Thunder despite a Grade 2 hamstring strain. Gordon was injured against OKC in Thursday’s Game 6 win and was initially considered doubtful for Game 7. Grade 2 hamstring strains typically require weeks to heal. Warriors star Stephen Curry missed four consecutive games against the Timberwolves in the second round with a Grade 1 hamstring strain.
“If Aaron can go, he’ll go. That’s who he is,” Denver interim coach David Adelman told reporters ahead of Game 7. “There’s a real toughness there. Sometimes being really, really tough and being hurt can get in the way.”
It is hard to overstate how important Gordon has been to the Nuggets’ postseason run. After his last-second dunk gave Denver the win in Game 4 against the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round, Gordon made a game-winning 3 in the opener against the Thunder and a clutch 3 that sent Game 3 into overtime. No one else on Denver’s roster can duplicate what he does on both ends.
The Nuggets are an eight-point road underdog on DraftKings in their second Game 7 of these playoffs.
“Aaron is a special player when he initiates, but I think our guys have had repetition,” Adelman said earlier this week. “And sometimes, this is what life is. Opportunity comes sometimes when you don’t want it to come. And if he can’t go, we have trust in those guys they get us into actions we need to get into.”
Adelman said it was nice to have more than one day between Games 6 and 7. This gave Gordon a bit of extra time, and it gave the whole team an opportunity to prep for the challenge ahead.
“We need it,” Adelman said. “We’re playing a historical team in a Game 7. A team — 68 wins, the greatest point differential ever, all of the things they’ve accomplished — I guess at this point they’ve won 75 games this year. So we need the rest to play a team this historically good.”
Denver is not a particularly deep team, and it does not have much margin for error in this matchup. If Gordon is not at his best then it will be fighting an uphill battle in Game 7.
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