Russell Westbrook and Aaron Gordon celebrate after Gordon’s game-winning shot in Game 1.
The pair of Nuggets connected on the game-winning 3 to steal Game 1 and home court from OKC.
Denver’s success as a team is generally attributed to their three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, and rightfully so. Jamal Murray, who’s enjoying somewhat of a bounce-back this postseason after shooting a career-low 40.2% from the field and 31.5% on 3-pointers during the 2024 playoffs, earns a ton of that credit, too. In nine games so far, he’s averaging 21.7 points on 46.8% shooting and 40.7% from long range (on 6.6 attempts).
However, Aaron Gordon and Russell Westbrook have been a massive part of the Nuggets’ winning formula throughout these playoffs. Let’s start with Russ.
After spending the last two years with the LA Clippers, Westbrook got some sweet revenge on his former hometown club in the first-round series win. He struggled in last season’s playoff run for LA, putting up just 6.3 points and 1.7 assists on shooting splits of 26.0% FG / 23.5% 3P / 61.5% FT across six appearances. That experience may have influenced how Clippers coach Tyronn Lue opted to defend Westbrook while also having to worry about Jokić and Murray. They dared Westbrook to shoot, and that’s precisely what he did.
In six contests against LA in the first round, Westbrook tallied 13.8 points and 1.3 steals on 43.3% shooting and 41.9% on 3-pointers (on 5.2 attempts per) as Denver’s fourth-leading scorer. Through eight games this postseason, he’s averaging a solid 15.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 3.0 apg while shooting 45.1% overall and 37.5% from deep (on 5.0 attempts per). Those percentages represent the 17-year vet’s best marks since the 2009-10 postseason (47.3% FG, 41.7% 3P).
When you dig deeper into his stats from this year, Russ has been and will continue to be an X-factor for Denver. When the Nuggets win, he’s been aggressive with 17.5 points on 46.3% shooting on 13.5 FGA and 38.1% from 3, along with 4.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.8 steals and a plus-3.3 plus-minus rating. In losses, the numbers dip to 12.5 ppg on 43.2% shooting on 9.3 FGA and 36.8% from 3, 0.3 steals and a negative-13.3 plus-minus rating.
Westbrook dropped 18 points (7-13 FG), 2 boards, and 2 dimes in 30 minutes in Denver’s 121-119 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the OKC Thunder. His final assist in that one? The cross-court dish to Aaron Gordon for the game-winning triple with 2.8 seconds left.
Now, let’s talk about ‘Air Gordon’ and what he’s contributed to the Mile High City. In Game 4 against the Clippers, he stunned fans and the NBA world by finishing the first-ever game-winning dunk in the playoffs, giving the Nuggets a 101-99 victory. If you don’t recall, Denver had just lost by 34 in Game 3 at the Intuit Dome and were down 2-1 going into that contest. Instead, Gordon put on his cape to help avoid what could have been a staggering 3-1 deficit, and his squad took three of the next four to advance to the semis.
Gordon’s three versus the Thunder put his name in the record books alongside Robert Horry (2002), Hedo Turkoglu (2009) and LeBron James (2018) as the only players since 1997-98 to sink two game-winners in a single playoffs run. “I worked on my jumper a lot – a lot – throughout the years. You guys have seen the maturation of it. It’s nice to have it all culminate in a game-winner”, he said in his postgame interview.
Similar to Westbrook, Gordon has been a key factor for Denver’s success in the playoffs with his scoring, rebounding and hustle. In their five wins, he put up 21.2 points on splits of 55.4% FG / 35.3% 3P / 87.5% FT, along with 7.2 rebounds (3.8 offensive boards) in 40 minutes. In their four losses, he went for 14.5 points while his shooting dipped to 40.4% overall, with 5.8 rebounds (4.0 offensive) in 34.4 minutes. In Wednesday’s loss, he finished with 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting and was minus-36 in 27 minutes.
The Nuggets are coming off a 43-point blowout loss against the Thunder, where they allowed an NBA-record 87 first-half points. Interim coach David Adelman said, “We got punked, and we didn’t play well enough and they came out with the right intensity. We didn’t.”
Denver will make the proper adjustments, and if they want to pick up their intensity in Game 3 tonight (10 ET, ESPN) with the series tied at 1-1, Gordon and Westbrook can supply that in bunches.
