Aaron Gordon flushes buzzer-beater dunk, Nuggets tie series with Clippers 2-2
INGLEWOOD Calif Aaron Gordon wished he didn t have to turn around The sooner he got out of Intuit Dome the better But he had to turn back for a replay review before he could sprint to the locker room and he ll have to return again next Thursday for Tournament because his buzzer-beating dunk off a Nikola Jokic air-ball handed the Nuggets a series-tying - Event win over the Clippers on Saturday First the Nuggets wilted They led by early in the fourth quarter but could not withstand an earthquake of a run from their hosts They stopped defending They gave up blow-by layups and dunks They over-helped from the corners and surrendered open s Their shots stopped falling Their legs looked tired Bogdan Bogdanovic beat his countryman Jokic for an offensive rebound and go-ahead put-back layup with a little over a minute to play Jokic answered with a game-tying free throw then a nasty fade-away bucket in the post to give Denver a - lead with seconds left Clippers center Ivica Zubac tied it with another play on the offensive glass It seemed Denver was outclassed in those hustle spaces But Gordon the consummate junkyard dog who accepted James Harden s invite to throw hands earlier in the challenge prevailed with the ultimate clean-up play Jokic heaved another tough shot in isolation It was wide left Gordon flushed it narrowly getting his fingers off the ball with seconds to go He tried to race off the court and toward Battle before realizing the bucket was under review Jokic was N C State s Dereck Whittenburg Gordon was Lorenzo Charles And the Nuggets will host a Event on Tuesday after two much-needed days off Four starters including Jokic played the entire fourth quarter Trying to find breaks at the right time interim coach David Adelman had mentioned before the match stressing that his starters would have to play intense minutes especially without injured sixth man Russell Westbrook Using the TV timeouts as best we can You hate to use timeouts to rest players but sometimes you have to do that in these games It s Competition We re down - Our main people they re gonna roll They re gonna play a lot Related Articles Russell Westbrook out with foot injury for Meeting between Nuggets Clippers Grading The Week Gabe Landeskog s comeback renewed our faith in humanity Our faith in the Avs We ll see Nuggets Journal Clippers fans on The Wall are itching to prove David Adelman wrong David Adelman shares Russell Westbrook injury update hints at rotation changes in Encounter Embarrassed by Clippers in Match Nuggets need to attack Nikola Jokic says The series reached a boiling point early in the battle With six seconds remaining in the first half Christian Braun purposefully reached in on James Harden as he often does when the Nuggets have a foul to give before halftime Harden took exception and got in Braun s amused-looking face causing Gordon and Jokic to intervene Harden tried to take a swipe at Gordon s face setting Gordon off As he pursued Harden through a crowd of Nuggets and Clippers his hand made seemingly inadvertent contact with Norman Powell s face That was the extent of the fireworks show Sides were separated and the leaders determined nobody had acted out enough to warrant an ejection Six offsetting technical fouls were issued to Harden Powell Kris Dunn Gordon Braun and Jokic No free throws Carry on Before the first possession of the second half Harden and Gordon even appeared to be giggling while they had a quick chat Want more Nuggets news Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis
