Before Jamal Murray ripped out the Lakers’ hearts, Aaron Gordon smothered their soul.
“I think it was in the huddle,” Nuggets wing Peyton Watson said of a 101-99 buzzer-beating win over the Los Angeles Lakers, one that staked Denver to a 2-0 series lead. “(Coach) said (to) switch, and (Gordon) was just like, ‘Whatever, let’s do it.’”
Before the wow, Monday night was all Brow. The greatest comeback in Nuggets postseason history began with an avalanche of Anthony Davis — the Lakers center who’d rolled into halftime with a game-high 24 points.
AD was a downhill train, scoring for fun. He’d attempted just 12 shots at the break. He’d nailed 11 of them. Los Angeles dinged Denver star Nikola Jokic with a high pick-and-roll early, then kept pummeling the Joker with it until the cut drew blood.
“You know, AD was cooking,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “He didn’t feel us. We didn’t give enough help. And then (Jokic) wanted to guard him the first couple of minutes (of the third quarter), see if we could disrupt him. And then we went to Aaron on him.”
Ninety seconds into the second half, Davis converted a 3-point play that put the visitors up 17. So Malone re-arranged the chess board, cross-matching Jokic to Lakers forward Rui Hachimura, guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to LeBron James, and Gordon, a 6-foot-8 power forward, to the 6-10 Davis.
“He’s a really good player, man,” AG said of AD. “I was just trying to do what I could just to slow him down.”
It proved to be a masterstroke. The Lakers went up 20 and seemingly had Game 2 sewn up. But as Davis wobbled, the Nuggets kept gnawing away at the stitches. The bleeding in the paint stopped.
“They just said that we were going to cross-match, and AG was ready to accept the challenge,” Watson gushed. “I mean, he didn’t flinch. He didn’t cower for one minute.”
After his free-throw at the 10:36 mark of the third stanza, Davis connected on just one more field goal over the next 22 minutes and 36 seconds. The nine-time All-Star took only one shot in the fourth quarter. Over the second half, AD racked up as many fouls (three) as baskets (three).
“If you can’t score on me,” Gordon said, matter-of-factly, “and I can score you, it’s going to be a long night.”
He scored 14. He pulled down seven boards. He dished out three assists. The true beauty of AG’s Game 2 glistened, as it usually does, from the margins. Screens. Box-outs. Floor burns. Lost causes.
With 1:17 left, his Nuggets down 95-92, Gordon outraced Austin Reaves to snare a loose ball at the baseline, turning chaos into poetry.
The Denver forward spotted a trailing Michael Porter Jr. out of the corner of his eye. In an instant, Mr. Nugget kept his footsies inbounds, flinging the rock back into play, over his right shoulder, Jokic-style, through the arms of Hachimura.
The save landed in MPJ’s mitts, just beyond the top of the arc, a near-perfect height for Porter to quickly catch and shoot. MPJ extended and fired, draining an unflinching trey that knotted the contest and sent Ball Arena into bedlam.
“It’s extremely impressive, especially for someone like me, who really prides himself on defense as well,” said Watson, whose bucket and two dimes helped the Nuggets bench outscore the Lakers’ reserves, 12-6.
“I’m learning things from (Gordon) as much as I can. But more than anything, I’m just learning about the mentality and the mindset behind it. I mean, it takes a lot of courage to go out there and step up in front of the national television (audience) and a big crowd.”
No flinching. No cowering. While Old Man ‘Bron and D’Angelo Russell were carping about the officiating, a reflective Gordon sat quietly at his locker, occasionally perusing a copy of the box score.
“That’s what I like to do, I love to defend,” he said. “I just do what’s asked of me. It doesn’t matter who you ask me to guard, 1 through 5, I’m gonna go in and give them fits.”
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With that, Watson walked over from across the locker room and leaned into Gordon’s stall.
“Hell of a game, AG,” the young Nuggets wing said. “You got me emotional, bro.”
“Love you, little bro,” Gordon replied.
“Much love,” Watson said, extending a grateful hand to the baddest dude on the floor, the glue and the gold.
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