MIAMI — After another dominant double-digit win Friday night that gave the Nuggets a 3-1 lead over the Miami Heat in the 2023 NBA Finals and guided Denver to one win for the franchise’s first NBA championship, Jamal Murray answered the question of whether he’d been able to. Thinking about how good his team has been over the past two months. Denver has consistently paired an elite offense with an increasingly elite defense, eliminating true stars to the All-NBA Team without ever delaying a Series or seeing a Game 7.
Murray, who has never been so annoyed on the podium, gave an answer suggesting Nuggets didn’t. Become anything; Rather, they are what they have He was.
“We’ve believed and known how great we’ve been for a few years now,” he said.
Even though Murray and the Nuggets thought they could be that good, they believed a favourfinal, since the spring of 2021. That’s when they traded Gary Harris, RJ Hampton, and a 2025 first-round pick to the Magic in exchange for Aaron Gordon, who immediately proved a perfect fit as Denver’s starting power forward between Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr.
The Nuggets won their first seven games with Gordon in uniform and outpaced the opposition 46 points in 117 minutes With Jokić, Murray, Gordon and Porter sharing the floor. They went to Los Angeles and Beat wire clippers to a wire, with Gordon stepping up and clamping down on Kawhi Leonard. They’ve gone from a good team to one that can win the championship; Gordon arrives make it complete …if only for a moment before that Murray’s torn anterior cruciate ligament leaving them missing a piece again.
“I love Gary Harris. I love RJ Hampton,” Nuggets manager Michael Malone said Mike Singer told The Denver Post after trade. “But this was a necessary step.”
It took two years to see how necessary: for Murray to recover, for Porter to recover, for Jokic to continue his rise to one of the greatest basketball players the sport has ever seen, for the full power of the Nuggets’ superweapon. Built in the Rocky Mountains and ready to go. On Friday, though, what made Gordon’s addition so essential for all to see was that the 27-year-old forward turned in the game of his life: a career-high 27 career playoff points. On 11-for-15 shooting, seven rebounds, six assists and a steal in 42 minutes of action, the Nuggets edged the hosts by 29 points.
“He brought his tough outfit tonight, and he was just a warrior of both ends for us,” said Mallon. “…making threes, getting to the foul line, and guarding at a high level. Aaron did everything for us tonight. He really did.”
Jokic added, “He was our best player on the ground. … He won the match today.”
He did it with his boundless brand. Wherever you looked in Game 4, there was Gordon.
There he was, chasing Jimmy Butler one-on-one, turning into Bam Adebayo and Kyle Lowry, protecting the edge and circling to the perimeter. There he was, lobbing the ball to the ground to relieve some of the full-court pressure the Heat had been directing at him throughout the series trying to wear him down. There he is, running the offense like a veteran facilitator, launching dribbled deliveries, driving the Cutters into open space, and driving tempo in transition.
There he was, taking two smaller Miami defenders to the woodshed with the backsliding in the post. There he was, punishing Bigger for giving him a cushion at the 3-point arc by confidently entering his triples and cashing in. There he was, lurking in the sunken spot and lurking behind aggressive Heat coverage, providing a vital countering point and alleyway outlet for the two-man Jokić-Murray matchup.
“It’s a dog,” Murray said. “He’s strong. He’s physical. He’s tough. He’s cool. He gets everyone off the field, and he’s a selfless player. He’s been solid in all the playoff games, this whole season, the whole time he’s been here. He’s been amazing. He just wants to the win “.
And in the fourth quarter, with Jokic benched with five fouls, there was Gordon, who started as a power forward and converted into a backup position, filling the void — teaming with Bruce Brown to anchor the defense, teaming with Murray to anchor the offense, pressing the bulwarks and helping ensure That five minutes, 15 seconds, Malone kept the key player twice off the bench, didn’t cost the Nuggets a golden opportunity to seize the series. When Joki came back, Denver was still leading by nine.
“You know, all season, it was like the minutes that didn’t belong to Nicola, kind of trigger,” said Malone, who described feeling like he had to cover his eyes and turn them away during those minutes. “Qualifiers, our guys…we’ve reduced our rotation. We decide who we play. But the guys out there fight and defend. Maybe our offense isn’t as pretty as it is with Nicola, but the five guys out there defend, and that’s the key to that group that plays well.”
Gordon got a lot of help on Friday. Plus Murray’s stellar playmaking (12 no-turnover assists despite a steady diet of blitz and traps) and Joki’s pedestrian but still lethal 23 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks, are all complementary pieces. Added by the Nuggets to their championship puzzle, the Nuggets played major roles in the thrilling Game 4 win.
Ranked as some 4/5 small-ball hybrid from Brooklyn, Brown confidently ran his way through the crucial stages of the NBA Finals game, attacking with reckless rushing and scoring 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. Kentavius Caldwell Pope, who struggled badly with his shot in the series, made three huge plays in the fourth quarter of his own: Striptease And Robbery On Butler In paint, a Stops at Adebayo when a mismatch He finished as a defensive rebounder and an A.J 3-pointer transmission that put Denver ahead by 14 with just under two minutes remaining, earning a “Bang!” From Mike Brin and sending a whole bunch of Heat fans headed to the exits:
However, it was Gordon who swung this game. After a layup 3 by Butler gave Miami a 1-point lead heading into the second quarter, Gordon began to throw his weight on the Heat’s backup, working his way into a 15-point second quarter that helped tilt the tide of the run. Play for Denver.
“The AG was very aggressive,” said Brown. “They’d swap a smaller defender on to him, or in transition, he’d have a smaller defender on him. Every time we wanted him to be aggressive. He’d make plays for us. He’d play it right every time, and tonight was his time to score.”
This idea — that on a team that has so much talent and so much confidence in the pass and in each other, it’s not always going to be everyoneAn opportunity to score, but your chance will Come-on is a key component of what has made Denver’s offense so devastating to guard all season. To hear Gordon say it, it’s also central to what makes this Nuggets team so special.
“That’s how this team was built,” he said. “We’ve got guys who can get you through the night and the day. Sometimes it’s not going to be your night, sometimes it’s going to be your night. This team does a good job of finding people who are kind of up-beat and get it going. When it comes down to it, I just want to be great for my teammates.” I know when my teammates need me, and [I’m] I only do it for my brothers.”
Gordon lacked that kind of consistency during the beginning of his career in Orlando – a period that saw him play for different coaches each season, with mixed rosters and varying priorities.
“When I was there, it was something new every year,” Gordon said he told the Denver Post singer After he was traded to the Nuggets. “New coaching staff, new general manager, new players. It was just big flops all the time. We didn’t know if we wanted to tank or if we were trying to win. It was like putting your foot on the gas and the brake at the same time. Burn out.”
On a team with no clear direction or order as it tries to rebuild after rebuild following the departure of Dwight Howard, Gordon has occasionally stretched past the breaking point in an effort to serve as the No. 1 offensive threat — scoring and small-game making forward in the mold of Leonard and Paul George. In Denver, though, he found a team with his key pieces already in place, all under the watchful eye of a steady coach in Malone.
“I felt like I was going to be a defender for this team, a defenseman for this team,” he said on Friday. “I knew they could score. MPJ, one of the best shooters on earth. You have a two-time MVP in Joker who can do everything on offense. You have Jamal Murray who can hit 50 on any given night. I knew I was coming to play defense and make it their mission Easy. That’s what I like to do.”
He found stability, a home in the NBA, a place where he could “get where I fit in.” And in the process, he found his best, the version of the game he was born to love.
“It was nice just knowing I could be myself, and that was enough — I didn’t have to be more or less,” Gordon said. “Yeah, that was cool. I do what the team tells me to do, sometimes score, sometimes bounce, sometimes defend MVP, sometimes make plays. It can be something different any night, but every night I have to be myself.”
Not all of the former top five are eager to have the opportunity to win everyone over lastEasy task. This, Nuggets says, is as important a part of what Gordon brings to the team as his defensive skill, rebounding by eating the glass, catching, and complementary playmaking. Gordon has willingly and utterly elevated his ego for the collective goal of seeking the NBA championship. Joki, for his part, believes we see altruism rewarded.
“I think if you sacrifice yourself for something bigger than yourself—the team, whatever it is…it sacrifices itself,” said Jokic, before turning his gaze skyward. “And that is why I believe the person upstairs gave him the match today, and gave him the match he played.”
Perhaps Gordon’s performance was the result of a higher benevolent force smiling at his sacrifice. Perhaps he was just a player with amazing physical talents being placed in the exact right conditions to maximize them and take advantage of this opportunity at a critical moment in his career. Either way: Game 4 showed precisely why the Denver front office appreciated Gordon, why Malone felt the trade to add him was so necessary, and why the Nuggets brass held on so tightly to what they saw in their 117-minute sneak preview last spring. 2021. It really is He was The missing piece for a team that can win the championship. And on Monday night in Denver, she’ll have the opportunity.
“I mean, that’s why we got him,” Murray said with a smile. “That’s why we got him.”