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Aaron Gordon: The Denver Nuggets’ all-purpose weapon
“Without him we wouldn’t have won today,” said coach Michael Malone. “Nikola always does his own thing, but what Aaron did today was fantastic.” After all, it wasn’t just the scoring that made Gordon so valuable in the last two games.
The forward initially defended the disappointing Karl-Anthony Towns (13, 5/18), later Gordon had to assert himself against Edwards and was the only Nuggets player to get stops against the Ant-Man (44, 16/25). And not only that: it was Gordon who got Denver rolling with basket attacks after a mediocre start and then took on a key role in the third quarter when Jokic had to go to the bench for a good six minutes with four fouls.
Gordon is not Jokic, but the 29-year-old now played point center and helped Denver maintain its double-digit lead without the Joker. It was a bit reminiscent of the previous year, when Denver mostly survived the minutes without the three-time MVP in the playoffs because Murray and small-ball center Gordon were able to generate enough offense. The same happened this time: The Nuggets won the almost nine minutes without Jokic with +5, while the Wolves were -13 in 2:40 minutes without Edwards.
2024-05-13 20:35:56
#Aaron #Gordon #unnerves #Minnesota #Timberwolves
