On Monday night, the Denver Nuggets stunned the entire NBA world yet again after mounting a come-from-behind win in Game 1 of their second-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Down by 11 with around four minutes to go, the Nuggets chipped away at the Thunder's lead and set up a crazy turn of events in the final 10 seconds or so of the game after Chet Holmgren missed two free throws with OKC up by one — setting up Aaron Gordon's game-winning triple, his second game-winner of this year's playoffs.

What made Gordon's game-winner such a ballsy one was that the Nuggets did not need to go for the three. They were only down by one, so a two-pointer would have sufficed. But in semi-transition, the tendency for opposing defenses is to guard the paint, and with Gordon being open for a triple on the wing, Russell Westbrook decided to dish him the rock and it paid off.

While some would still question the process behind the Nuggets' game-winner even though it worked beautifully, Gordon believes that they made the right play — with Westbrook making the smart decision to give him the basketball.

“The right play is the open man. Russ makes the right play a lot of times. I saw the paint was clogged. I thought that was the best look that we're going to get,” Gordon said in his postgame interview with TNT's Stephanie Ready.

Gordon has made plenty of strides as a three-point shooter; gone are the days where he would be dared to shoot corner triples. This past season, Gordon shot 43.6 percent from beyond the arc, and clearly, all his work in the lab has been paying off and the Nuggets, a team that doesn't make too many threes, got a three-point make at the exact right moment they needed one.

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Aaron Gordon and the Nuggets are far from exhausted

Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon (32) shoots a three point basket to win game one of the second round against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center.
Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

The Nuggets have had to rely on a short rotation all playoffs long, and they're coming off a slugfest of a seven-game series against the Los Angeles Clippers. But here they are, not giving up against the Thunder, the best team in the association, and they now have a 1-0 lead in the series as a result.

“Great poise with this team. Between Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, you got Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook, you got [Christian Braun] who's stepping into his own… A lot of guys stepped up. But I think our poise and our belief that we were going to win no matter the circumstance [was what pushed us over the top],” Gordon added.