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Aaron Gordon was sitting in the Denver Nuggets‘ locker room with ice wrapped around his knees, watching the Golden State Warriors play the Houston Rockets, when something flashed across the screen: It was his face, with ABC announcing that Gordon had just made the first buzzer-beating dunk in playoff history.
“That’s crazy,” Gordon said, flashing a smile.
A few moments earlier, with the score tied at 99-99 in Game 4 of the Nuggets’ first-round playoff series against the LA Clippers, Gordon caught an airball from Nikola Jokic and made a two-handed dunk as 0.0 flashed on the clock. He immediately ran across the court to the tunnel, holding an arm up in celebration as he jumped into the air.
The jam was made without a millisecond to spare, leading the officials to review whether the ball left Gordon’s fingertips in time. Jokic was dubious, retreating to the bench alongside his team, not wanting to get excited and then let down. But Gordon was long gone, having unwavering faith that the referees’ verdict would go his way.
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“Oh, I knew,” Gordon told FOX Sports.
It was an incredible finish to a nail-biter, in which the Nuggets squandered a 22-point lead by allowing the Clippers to outscore them in the fourth quarter, 34-16. But in the end, Gordon’s heroics saved the day for the Nuggets, tying the series at 2-2.
For Gordon, it was a moment of pure elation amid an incredibly tough season in which he was grieving the death of his brother in a car accident 10 months ago, as well as dealing with multiple calf strains.
Nuggets interim coach David Adelman, who was an assistant when Gordon was the star player in Orlando, has witnessed the 29-year-old’s growth over his 11-season career.
He watched Gordon go from being the guy on a team that missed the playoffs five times and had two first-round playoff exits, to accepting a smaller role after he was dealt to Denver at the 2021 trade deadline, becoming an essential piece for their title-winning run in 2023.
“There are certain people in our league that we define as championship pieces,” Adelman said. “I think we say that too much. He is one of those people. He’s the definition of that and he always has been since he got to us.”
Gordon, a two-way player who’s equally happy to have a dominant performance or sacrifice gaudy stats and do grunt work, opted to deflect the attention off of him after making a play that was going viral on the internet, being discussed during another national playoff game and undoubtedly deserving of being on the Mt. Rushmore of postseason buzzer beaters.
When asked how the dunk felt, Gordon cracked a joke about Jokic’s airball.
“Nice pass,” Gordon said as Jokic sat next to him during their postgame news conference.
Jokic, a three-time MVP who rarely misses the mark so drastically, was then asked if he indeed was dishing the ball to Gordon instead of attempting a very errant 27-foot fadeaway 3-pointer.
“No,” Jokic said sheepishly. “It wasn’t [a pass]”
Regardless, Gordon’s timing was perfect, and he made yet another winning play for the Nuggets, who are trying to compete for another championship after being eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semifinals last postseason.
Gordon had a highlight reel play Saturday, but Adelman said his contributions to the Nuggets often fly under the radar.
“He initiates offense,” Adelman said. “He guards some of the best players in the NBA. You can post him. He can go one-on-one. You can iso him against smaller guys. You can put him on smaller offensive players. On top of all that, Aaron doesn’t care if it’s 12 [points] 8 [rebounds],4 [assists] that night as long as we win. And some nights, it’s 22 [points], 12 [rebounds], 6 [assists], [but], if we lose, he doesn’t care. He wants to win.”
When Gordon was asked about his selflessness, he pointed to Jokic, the team’s leader, who only cares about winning, his family and horses, and is entirely unconcerned about stats or individual accolades.
“This guy is the best player in the world and he’s unselfish,” Gordon said. “So, if he can do it, everybody can do it.”
The Nuggets’ series against the Clippers has been the most exciting matchup in the first round of the playoffs, with three of the games being decided by three points or fewer. Unsurprisingly, Game 4 got chippy, with three players on each team being assessed a technical after Christian Braun fouled James Harden with 6.6 seconds left in the second quarter, causing both teams to engage in a skirmish.
Funny enough, instead of lamenting Gordon’s incredible buzzer-beater, the Clippers might want to blame Ivica Zubac for the game getting away from them, considering he restrained Gordon from going after Harden during the melee. Harden had shoved Gordon, and then Gordon hit Norman Powell in the face before Zubac intervened, leading the crowd at Intuit Dome to chant at Gordon, “Kick him out.”
As for Gordon, he said he was just sticking up for his teammate.
“I can’t let nobody step to my young fella, so I was just giving backup,” Gordon said of Braun. “It’s what playoff basketball is about.”
As for the Nuggets, all five starters finished in double figures, with Jokic leading the charge with 36 points, 21 rebounds and eight assists. But the spotlight was on Gordon, who had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists – as well as the biggest play of the postseason.
Gordon has proven to the Nuggets that he’s the ultimate blue-collar worker, willing to do anything for his team. This season, he averaged 14.7 points while shooting a career-high 43.6 percent from beyond the arc, as well as getting 4.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game.
For another team, his numbers could be much more impressive.
But he’s much more concerned about doing the little things for a team that could win a championship. And after the Nuggets’ 34-point drubbing in Game 3, he wasn’t going to let another game get away from the Nuggets.
As soon as Jokic attempted his last-second 3-pointer over Zubac, he internally winced, acknowledging six words crossed his mind: “This is going to be bad.”
But he didn’t need to worry.
Gordon did what he does best, doing the small things for his team.
Only this small thing not only lifted his team to a win, but it also made the history books.
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.
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