Murray wouldn’t have finished this game with 12 assists and zero turnovers if not for Gordon making himself available, facilitating the possessions that Murray (who had one of the best passing games of his career) couldn’t see all the way through. Flash when he gets blitzed,’” Gordon said. “He told me: ‘Just don’t leave him stranded. When the Heat started trapping Murray out of the pick-and-roll, Jokic pulled Gordon aside and suggested that he make himself available out on the perimeter to work as a pressure release.
Jokic and Murray make Gordon’s role simpler, but showings like this from Gordon make their lives demonstrably easier. “I think if you sacrifice yourself for something bigger than yourself-the team, or whatever-he sacrifices himself, and that’s why I think the one upstairs gave him the game today that he had,” Jokic said with a nod to the ceiling, and the basketball gods. The five members of any lineup can fit together only if they allow themselves to, and Gordon-no matter who is on the floor with him or what his responsibilities might be-modulates his game perfectly. Very obviously talented, but willing to streamline his approach. And they reference that path because, in a way, Gordon is Nuggets basketball. Gordon’s teammates will often reference the fact that he gave up life as a primary option to be here-that he had the ball in his hands in Orlando but was willing to give it away to be a part of what Denver was building. This team does a good job finding the people that are kind of in a rhythm and kind of going.” Sometimes it’s not going to be your night, and sometimes it is going to be your night.
“We have guys that can step up, night in and night out. “That’s just how this team is built,” Gordon says. There is ample opportunity for Gordon, who slots in as a third or fourth option much of the time, to eat just by making himself available. That scoring will always be an outgrowth of the primary offense Gordon wouldn’t have gotten clean catches inside if not for Jokic hitting enough 3s (including a bombs-away look from Steph Curry range) to pull Bam Adebayo out to the perimeter, or without Murray drawing so much attention as to pull the entire Heat defense off its axis. So Gordon put up more points in Game 4 than any of Jokic and Murray’s teammates have in any other game of these playoffs to date. The NBA game unfolds with a speed and physicality that’s harrowing to see up close, but if you’re bigger and stronger and more athletic than almost anyone who guards you and have the skill to do something about it, go straight to the basket, over and over, until the defense proves it can stop you. Gordon is living proof that basketball doesn’t have to be complicated. He’s chill-he brings everybody together off the court. Even when the Heat have sprinted back to hurriedly set up their defense in transition and cut off the Nuggets’ access to some of the easiest possible points, they play so few guys even plausibly big or strong enough to handle Gordon that he often gets picked up by a smaller opponent like Kyle Lowry and he-once more, with feeling-just mashes him inside. If the Heat try to blitz Murray in an effort to rush his decision-making-as they did often in Game 4-the rest of the team is forced into rotation, making it easier for Gordon to find a smaller opponent like Caleb Martin and, well, just mash him into the paint.
When Miami has tried to switch on screens in these NBA Finals, it’s been easy for Gordon to find a smaller opponent like Gabe Vincent and just mash him into the paint. Such was the case in Game 4, a commanding 108-95 win for the Nuggets defined by Gordon’s contributions: a playoff career-high 27 points (on 15 shots), seven rebounds, six assists, and a disposition to punish any defense the Heat tried to run. The schemes clever enough to withstand all that, and executed sharply enough to actually complicate the best tandem offense in the league, usually just get absolutely wrecked inside anyway-as Aaron Gordon preys on whatever compromises were made to wrangle Jokic and Murray in the first place. Many of the best-laid plans for slowing down the Denver Nuggets get shredded to ribbons by Nikola Jokic or reduced to ash, courtesy of Jamal Murray.
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