Aaron Gordon couldn’t tell exactly who said it, but the comment he heard from the Boston Celtics’ bench was an accurate reflection of every individual’s reaction in the building.
“The Celtics bench was like, ‘Yo, what the (expletive) was that?’” Gordon said.
On his own bench at the opposite end of the floor, he located a trustworthy barometer of slam-dunk absurdity.
DeAndre Jordan was falling backward, destabilized by the power of Gordon’s put-back.
“DJ is hilarious with the facial expressions,” Gordon said. “… He knows what it’s like to have crazy dunks. He’s had some wild dunks, so if he’s like, ‘That was nuts,’ then I know it’s valid.”
aaron gordon just shaved a couple of years off deandre jordan’s lifespan pic.twitter.com/amSU8W3u6n
— Dan Favale (@danfavale) March 8, 2024
Gordon’s one-handed slam after a Nikola Jokic miss helped delay Boston’s late comeback, giving the Nuggets a 109-102 lead with 2:12 remaining. And it wasn’t even his most clutch dunk of the night in a 115-109 win over the NBA-best Celtics.
With fewer than 30 seconds left and the Nuggets (43-20) protecting a two-point lead, they isolated Jokic against Kristaps Porzingis late in the shot clock. He attacked the Boston center with two spin moves then lobbed an alley-oop for Gordon, who had snuck behind Jayson Tatum on the baseline. It was good for a 113-109 lead with 19.8 seconds left — essentially a game-clinching dunk in Denver’s biggest home game of the regular season.
“He’s the best dunker I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Peyton Watson, who is building his own catalogue of emphatic slams this season.
Death.
Taxes.
And the Denver Nuggets putting teams away with the Nikola Jokić-to-Aaron Gordon lob. pic.twitter.com/IUC95kXdwQ
— Matt Brooks (@MattBrooksNBA) March 8, 2024
Gordon’s eight made field goals Thursday night included seven dunks. In eight games since the All-Star break, 25 of his 49 made shots have been dunks. Gordon’s greatest trait may be his frontcourt defense and positional versatility — he’ll play starting power forward and backup center in the playoffs — but his command of the dunker spot and athleticism around the rim are increasingly vital aspects of Denver’s championship DNA.
“I would dunk it every time if I could,” Gordon said.
Recent games have revealed just how vital. Last weekend at the Lakers, Jokic lobbed to Gordon in the last 45 seconds of the game to cement a dominant crunch-time run. On Thursday at Ball Arena, the lob stopped a Celtics comeback in its tracks. Even before the alley-oop out of Jokic’s iso, Denver was taking advantage of Joe Mazzulla’s defensive coverages to feed Gordon through the air.
“Tonight they were switching. So now you’re switching the pick-and-roll, which means Nikola’s got a small on him at the nail,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “So as he’s backing that guy down, the other (defender) who’s kind of roaming the baseline, he feels the need to step up sometimes. And when he does that, if we’re spaced correctly, we have Aaron roaming the sky. He’s giving the traffic report up there. And you have shooting in the corners.
“So at that point in time, Nikola’s got two feet inside the paint. Pick your poison. One-on-one? He’s one of the best midrange shooters in the game. Send a body up? You have Aaron Gordon doing what he does better than anybody in the league. And if you want to send a body up and sink to Aaron Gordon, then you’ve got great shooters in the corners. That’s who we’ve become. That’s kind of our go-to play.”
Especially with games on the line. The Nuggets have established a reputation as one of the best clutch teams in the NBA, and the normalcy with which they’re able to unlock the Gordon baseline cut for a dunk in suspenseful situations has become more stunning than the dunks themselves. As Malone said, the most pure version of the “go-to play” starts with Jamal Murray running the pick-and-roll. Jokic receives a pocket pass then lobs to Gordon as the back line of an opposing defense instinctively slides up the floor to meet the rolling big man.
“It’s crazy,” Gordon admitted. “A big-to-big lob in clutch time? It’s just a testament to how good of a passer (Jokic) is. How much attention he draws from the defense, and then just being ready. It’s pretty fun.”
When the Nuggets ended the Celtics’ 20-0 home record in Boston, Gordon’s essential quality was his durability. He played the entire second half, alternating between the four and the five, as Malone shortened his bench and treated it like a playoff game. Malone didn’t need Gordon to push himself to the limit this time with Denver playing with a lead for most of the game. Instead, Gordon overwhelmed with his highlight reel. He went up to catch and finish a seemingly errant lob in the first half. He reached his right arm way back and well below his shoulders to gather Jokic’s miss for the put-back.
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“It was just a tip dunk. Being in the right spot at the right time,” he said afterward. “I think Joker kind of knew that I was there for the rebound, so I think he was just trying to get it on the rim. I don’t know if he had the right angle to actually put it in, but just to get it on the rim was enough. He knew that I was gonna come clean it up.”
Jokic denied the notion that getting the ball off the rim to a teammate is ever part of his calculus, but he did acknowledge the comfortable margin for error he has with shots and passes when Gordon is sharing the floor with him.
“When you give him the ball, he’s gonna dunk it,” Jokic said. “… I just need to throw it up there, and I know he’s going to get it. Most of the time. And if he doesn’t get it, it’s basically my fault, because I didn’t pass it the right way.”
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