Melissa Rohlin
Fox Sports NBA writer
Aaron Gordon was sitting on the Nuggets costumes of the Denver with ice wrapped around his knees, watching the Golden State Warriors play the Houston Rockets, when something flattened on the screen: it was that it was His Face, with ABC announcing that Gordon had just made the first overtown in the history of the playoffs.
“That’s crazy,” Gordon said, showing a smile.
A few moments before, with the score tied in 99-99 in game 4 of the first round playoff series of the Nuggets against the Los Angeles clippers, Gordon Caht An Airball by Nikola Jokic and made a two-hand dumping axis 0.0 flicked on the clock. He immediately ran down the court to the tunnel, holding an arm in celebration while jumped into the air.
The traffic jam was done without a millisecond of plenty, which led the officials to check if the ball left the yolks of Gordon’s fingers on time. Jokic was doubtful, retiring to the bank with his team, not wanting to get excited and then disappoint. But Gordon had gone a long time ago, having an unwavering faith that the verdict of the referees was on their way.
“Oh, I knew it,” Gordon told Fox Sports.
It was an incredible ending for a nail carrier, in which Nuggets wasted a 22-point advantage by allowing the clippers to exceed them in the last quarter, 34-16. But in the end, Gordon’s heroics saved the day for the Nuggets, drawing the series in 2-2.
For Gordon, it was a moment of pure euphoria in the midst of an incredible hard season in which he was afflicting his brother’s death in a car accident 10 months ago, in addition to dealing with multiple calves of calves.
The interim coach of the Nuggets, David Adelman, who was an assistant when Gordon was the star player in Orlando, has witnessed the growth of the 29 -year -old man in his career of 11 seasons.
He saw Gordon go from being The boy In a team that lost the playoffs five times and had two first round playoffs, to accept a narrower role after Dalt was Denver in the 2021 exchange deadline, becoming an essential piece for his winning career in 2023.
“There are certain people in our league that we define as championship pieces,” said Adelman. “I think we say it too much. He is one of those people. He is the definition of that and has always extended, he has it.”
Gordon, a bidirectional player who is equally happy to have a dominant performance or sacrifice striking statistics and do grunt jobs, chose to divert his attention after making a play that was becoming viral on the Internet, the duration of the duration of the mountain was discussed.
When asked how the overtown felt, Gordon made a joke on the Jokic Airball.
“Good pass,” Gordon said when Jokic sat next to him his press conference after the game.
Jokic, an MVP three times that rarely loses the mark so drastic, asked if he was delivering the ball to Gordon instead of trying a very wandering 27 feet triple.
“No,” Jokic said timidly. “It wasn’t [a pass]”
Anyway, Gordon’s moment was perfect, and made another winning play for Nuggets, who are trying to compete for another championship after being eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the semifinal of the West Conference the last postseason.
Gordon had a highway game on Saturday, but Adelman said his contributions to Nuggets often fly under the radar.
“Start the offensive,” said Adelman. “Hey, keep some of the best players in the NBA. You can publish it. You can go one by one. You can Isarlo against smaller guys. You can put it in narrower offensive players. In addition to all that, Aaron does not care that they have 12 [points] 8 [rebounds]4 [assists] That night while we win. And some nights, there are 22 [points]12 [rebounds]6 [assists]” [but]If we lose, he doesn’t care. Hello, wants to win. “
When Gordon was asked about his disinterest, he told Jokic, the team leader, whom he only cares about winning, his family and horses, and has no concerns about the States or individual praise.
“This guy is the best player in the world and is selfless,” said Gordon. “So, if you can do it, everyone can do it.”
The Nuggets series against the clippers has been the most exciting confrontation in the first round of the playoffs, with three of the games determined by three points or Ferwer. As expected, game 4 obtained Chippy, with three players in each team that a technician was evaluated after Christian Braun committed a foul to James Harden with 6.6 seconds remaining in the second quarter, which makes both teams participate in a skirt.
Interestingly, instead of lamenting the incredible beating of Gordon’s timbres, the clippers could want to blame Ivica Zubac for the game that escaped them, considering that he prevented Gordon from going after hardening the melee fight. Harden had pushed Gordon, and then Gordon hit Norman Powell on his face before Zubac intervened, leading to the crowd in Intuit Dome to sing to Gordon, “Patrelo out.”
As for Gordon, he said he was defending his teammate.
“I can’t let anyone step on my young guy, so I was just supporting,” Gordon said about Braun. “It is what the playoffs basketball is about.”
As for the Nuggets, the five headlines ended in double figures, with Jokic leading the load with 36 points, 21 rebounds and eight assists. But the center of attention was in Gordon, which had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists, as well as the largest postseason game.
Gordon has demonstrated to Nuggets that he is the best blue neck worker, willing to do anything for his team. This season, he averaged 14.7 points while fired 43.6 percent beyond the arch, in addition to obtaining 4.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
For another team, their numbers could be much more impressive.
But he is much more concerned with doing little things for a team that could win a championship. And after driving 34 nuggets points in game 3, I was going to let another game get out of them.
As soon as Jokic tried his last second triple about Zubac, he made a grimace internally, recognizing that six words were walking through his mind: “This is going to be bad.”
But he didn’t need to worry.
Gordon did what he does best, doing small things for his team.
Only this little thing not only led his team to a victory, but also made the history books.
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for Fox Sports. She previously covered the Sports Illustrated League, the Los Angeles Times, the news group from the Bay area and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @Melissarohlin.
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