The Denver Nuggets hit a historic game-winner and the ball never touched Nikola Jokic or Jamal Murray’s hands on the final possession — because keeping it away from the two was the right play, and that’s at the ethos of this group of Mile High City hoopers.
There’s a thing in basketball called winning plays, which is normally a catch-all for things that don’t show up in the box score. A great screen, a strong box-out, a loose ball recovered. Aaron Gordon made one of those “winning plays” to dive on a defensive rebound in a four-point game with 1:23 left on Monday. It was no shock to anyone who has watched AG in Denver, he’s constantly providing the extra punch and doing the dirty stuff.
His effort led the Nuggets to call a timeout, securing the ball and moving it into the frontcourt. A few moments later, Jokic rose above an in-his-grill former Nugget and now Thunder big Isaiah Hartenstein for a massive three.
Sometimes winning plays don’t end up directly impacting the score like that one. Just 40 seconds later, Gordon collected a clutch and grueling offensive rebound off a wide-open Russell Westbrook miss from three. Maybe not the best shot by the numbers, but it was the right one. Gordon went back up after the board with the Nuggets down just one point, but his shot failed.
Denver had to use their final timeout while the Thunder extended the game by not letting Denver get a three-pointer. Gordon was forced to go to the line and hit two free throws; he did. But eventually, a young OKC player, Chet Holmgren, missed free throws, giving the Nuggets a chance with nine seconds left and down one.
The issue was, the Nuggets didn’t have a timeout to draw up a play, so they just had to run. Winning-play-maker Christian Braun grabbed the ball and threw it up the floor to the always-chaotic Westbrook. The former MVP was calm, driving the lane, forcing Holmgren to collapse toward the paint, leaving Gordon open on the wing for the game-winner — one of the biggest shots in Nuggets history.
Without Gordon’s dive, the two most important buckets in the Nuggets’ win might not have happened. Because of it, the Nuggets stole Game 1 from the NBA’s best team this season on the back of a 19-6 closing run.
“He’s the soul of this team,” Jokic said after the game. “He’s a glue guy and doesn’t get as much respect as he deserves, but he doesn’t need attention, he knows what he’s doing, and I’m happy for him.”
Nuggets fans recognize Gordon and his contributions, and it’s not just because the 29-year-old partied in the streets with the people of Denver the night the team won the title.
Over the last decade, I have watched the Nuggets play with a lot of friends and family. Many of these folks have had a preconceived expectation about what an NBA game is like. Some of them tuned out the league during the iso-heavy post-Jordan era in the 2000s, several have told me they prefer the team-oriented nature of the college game and a fair few have never really watched pro basketball or sports altogether.
Some things all of them have pointed out to me are that it’s a much different viewing experience than they think. They point toward the joy, the resilience, but mostly they all say the same thing — Jokic plays the right way, a fun brand of basketball that involves the entire team.
Obviously, the city has fallen in love with Jokic and his era of Nuggets, selling out more than 100 straight games. A lot of these folks weren’t fans of the Nuggets before, the red-headed stepchild of pro sports in this town, or maybe even of basketball. They all walk away inspired and excited. It’s easy to see why when Jokic puts on the first-ever 42-point, 22-rebound, 6-assist performance in NBA playoff history.
I got a lot of texts from those people in my life late Monday night after the Nuggets’ Game 1 121-119 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. About Jokic and more. Excited, sure, but many contained depth and a deep understanding of who Gordon is and the journey he’s been through. Jokic’s Hall of Fame play has created fans of more than just himself, but of his team and his teammates.
Gordon is maybe the most deserving of praise. His story has been told quite a few times, but let’s do it again, really quickly.
Gordon was once the guy. Top-five pick, human highlight reel, slam dunk contest darling. In Orlando, he could have had the keys to the kingdom. He was the best player, sure, but he mostly took the Magic nowhere. He scored, he rebounded, he jumped over mascots. He was flashy, he was fun, but he wasn’t winning. Somewhere between the skywalking and stat-padding, Gordon realized he wasn’t chasing stardom anymore — he was chasing significance.
“That guy, that’s where I learned to be selfless. I learned it from him,” Gordon said, looking at Jokic months ago. “He’s the best basketball player in the world. Three-time MVP. He’s the most selfless, humble dude that you will ever meet. If a three-time MVP can do it, I can do it too.”
That’s Jokic, he refuses to take over a game unless the game tells him it needs to be taken over. The Serbian would rather pass to his struggling open teammate than take a tough shot himself that nobody would blame him for. He plays pure, no matter if it’s preseason or playoffs. He respects the game and expects it to respect him back.
During Game 1, maybe there was a nod from the Basketball gods back to Jokic in leaving this game on a platter for the Nuggets despite the Thunder’s strong play. They had had enough of MVP front-runner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s foul-baiting, Holmgren’s hacks and most of all, OKC’s strategy to extend the game via the foul game while leading. It was a dare, extending a game at home against one of the best offensive players in league history because they didn’t trust their No. 1-rated defense to stop a three — something they were actually proved right to be concerned about.
Gordon is just one of the many Nuggets who has reverted back to this style of pure hoops. It started right after his trade to Denver. Overnight, he shifted mentalities and shared his desire to be a supercharged role player. That he’s been, often guarding the other team’s best player, sometimes only standing under the rim and dunking on offense. An out-sized athlete that just needs to be glue. The Nuggets and Gordon have found love in each other, proven by the second contract extension he signed coming into this season.
Despite getting over $100 million last summer, his life has hit a rough stretch. He lost his brother and former NBA player, Drew, in a tragic car accident.
Gordon has spent most of the season sidelined with a few different leg injuries, held to the fewest games of his career in a non-shortened year since he was a rookie. Just when he likely needed basketball the most. So what he turned to was shooting, a lot of shooting. Late at night, when he couldn’t sleep, he would roll out of bed in the warehouse he dwells in and hit the court he built.
“He lives in a gym, literally,” Christian Braun said. “When you can roll out of bed and go to your gym shoot, that helps a little bit.”
Gordon hasn’t been known as a shooter in his career, but this season he shot 14.6% better from three-point range and 15.2% better from the free throw line than he did in the 2023-24 season. He’s the first player in NBA history to improve by at least 10% in both categories in a single season. The high-flying forward metamorphosed once again, this time into one of the best shooting forwards in the league. And it was his clutch free throws and game-winning shot that were the difference for Denver on Monday.
“I’ve worked on my jumper a lot throughout the years, you guys have seen the maturation of it, so it’s nice to have it all culminate in a game winner,” Gordon said after Game 1. “But it really comes down to my teammates like Russ making a great play and finding me in transition and in rhythm. On time on target. It helps when you have a Hall of Fame passer passing to you.”
Where the young OKC panicked, Holmgren missing a wide-open dunk on the break, a corner three and two free throws, the Nuggets showed off their championship pedigree.
“But we just didn’t want to miss the moment. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity. We knew if we waited, it might be too late. I’m glad we showed our mettle, our grit. But we’re not satisfied.”
Westbrook rushed it up the court, and Gordon got the three off because they didn’t want to be a second too late in getting a shot off, something he knows a lot about since he waited until the last frame of Game 4 in Round 1 to jam home a buzzer-beater.
While Gordon may have opened his media session by sharing urgency, he ended it by preaching patience.
With his brother Drew’s kids Zayne and Brody on his lap, he said, “It gets greater later. Stick with it, be a demonstration of resiliency.”
Gordon’s career has gotten greater later with maybe his most iconic moments coming within the last 10 days. Which says a lot, given the national spotlight his dunk contests garnered, what those moments didn’t equate to was wins. Gordon has made winning plays in the last eight games, like he always does, and it’s why the Nuggets are up a game in Round 2 of the playoffs.
“He’s great, he’s my good friend, we share a lot of stories and emotions together,” Jokic said of Gordon.
He may have never taken the keys in Orlando, but it got greater later. Now he holds the keys to the city in Denver, with multiple legendary playoff moments to go with his ring. He’s Jokic’s bestie, but on Monday night, the Nuggets didn’t go to Joker or Jamal — and because of that, we all got to share another emotional high with Gordon. That selflessness is why the Nuggets win, and why Denver has never been more in love with its basketball team.
