{"id":12796,"date":"2025-05-06T08:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T08:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/12796\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T08:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T08:09:09","slug":"gordon-jokic-lead-nuggets-past-thunder-in-game-1-of-nba-playoffs-basketball-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/12796\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon, Jokic lead Nuggets past Thunder in Game 1 of NBA playoffs | Basketball News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Gordon\u2019s late 3-pointer handed Denver Nuggets a huge Game 1 road win over the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n

Aaron Gordon scored a last-gasp 3-pointer and Nikola Jokic produced a 42-point masterpiece as the Denver Nuggets stunned the No.1 seeded Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119 in a dramatic NBA Western Conference second round series opener.<\/p>\n

Nuggets forward Gordon drained a 25-foot effort from outside the arc with four seconds remaining to snatch victory on Monday against a Thunder line-up who had led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

The Thunder continued to lead by double digits for much of the fourth quarter, but saw their advantage evaporate after 18 points from Serbian star Jokic in the final frame.<\/p>\n

The towering three-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) finished with 22 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal in addition to his 42-point tally.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City were left ruing two missed free throws from forward Chet Holmgren with 10 seconds remaining with his team defending a slender 119-118 lead.<\/p>\n

Those misses proved costly, with Denver rebounding and launching the final offensive raid that ended with Gordon\u2019s winning 3-pointer.<\/p>\n

Denver interim coach David Adelman paid tribute to the all-round effectiveness of Gordon, who finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at ball-handling, responsibilities, leadership \u2013 he is a Denver Nugget, the soul of our team,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cSo cool to see him have a moment like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon said the Nuggets\u2019 calmness under pressure had helped them close out the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys stepped up,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had poise and a belief that we were going to win no matter the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon and Jokic were backed by 21 points from Jamal Murray and 18 points from Russell Westbrook.<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 33 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, with Alex Caruso scoring 20 off the bench after shooting five three-pointers.<\/p>\n

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series takes place on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"NikolaReigning NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets scored 42 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of their Western Conference, second round series [Sam Hodde \/Getty Images via AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Gordon\u2019s late 3-pointer handed Denver Nuggets a huge Game 1 road win over the top-seeded Oklahoma City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,6,67,310,475,179,3966,3965,275,312,417,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-12796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-thunder","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114459873544472795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}