LOS ANGELES — The trade that sent the Denver Nuggets to this other dimension as a basketball team was widely lauded at the time. Still, the Nuggets’ deal to acquire Aaron Gordon from the Orlando Magic a little over three years ago has worked out better than imagined.
Gordon himself knew the fit was the right one. He knew the Nuggets were going to compete for championships. He fully expected it. But being able to envision something is no guarantee it will come to fruition. When you watch Denver play, and you watch the repetitive greatness that is their chemistry, you could ask yourself: How did the Nuggets manage to pull off that kind of a trade-deadline steal?
In a Game 3 against the Los Angeles Lakers, a 112-105 Denver win at Crypto.com Arena that for all intents should end any questions about who will win this first-round series, Gordon was the best player on a basketball court that featured Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. It wasn’t so much Gordon’s playoff career-best 29 points, or his 15 rebounds. It was his impact on both ends of the floor, and the force he played with. It was his activity on both backboards, his versatility and his ability to affect the game with and without the ball.
The Lakers bent to Gordon’s will on Thursday night. They had no answer for his tenacity. They couldn’t keep him from finding the basketball. And, oh yes, Jokić and Murray and Michael Porter Jr. were all excellent as well. As a result, the Nuggets have an opportunity for a second consecutive series sweep of the Lakers, after taking four straight last spring in the Western Conference finals. Denver has beaten Los Angeles 11 consecutive times. And, if we are being truthful, it’s tough envisioning this dominance not continuing in Saturday night’s Game 4, without some help from the Nuggets themselves.
“Quite frankly, my expectations were championships,” Gordon said. “I thought this was a great fit when the trade happened. I think what everyone is seeing is that there isn’t a lot of overlap in our starting five. The first year I was here, we were making a run. But then Jamal goes down. Next year Mike goes down. Injuries are always a part of the game, but if you take the injuries out, I feel we would have already won a championship. It’s just so great playing with these guys. They are so damn talented and amazing to play with. At this point, it makes the game look easy.”
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This blueprint, the power forward who could do it all in an unselfish way next to Jokić, actually came before Gordon himself. It started with Paul Millsap, who was a big part of Denver’s run to the 2020 Western Conference finals. But, that wasn’t prime Millsap, the one who played at an All-Star level with the Atlanta Hawks. His skill set was perfect for Denver, perfect next to Jokić and Murray as well. But by the time Millsap got to the Nuggets, he wasn’t the same defender or the same athlete he had been at the height of his basketball powers.
Gordon is like Millsap, only in his prime. And physically stronger. Offensively, he consistently finishes above the rim, and against the Lakers on Thursday night he punished them from the dunker’s spot with cuts to the basket from the baseline.
The Lakers haven’t been able to stop his offensive rebounding through the series. In Monday night’s Game 2 comeback, Gordon secured Jokić’s errant half-court shot with the Nuggets down three in the final 90 seconds. He then found Porter for the game-tying 3-pointer that led to Murray’s game-winner. In Game 2, Gordon switched on to Davis when Davis was cooking Jokić offensively. Gordon held him without a made basket for the final 19 minutes of the game.
“What’s amazing is how much he accepted his role when he was traded to us,” Jokić said. “He knows that every game is going to be different for him, and he is fine with it….
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .