Aaron Gordon went to the postgame interview room after his latest heroic moment for the Denver Nuggets, took a seat with his two nephews on his lap and waited for somebody to say something.
He finally broke the silence.
“Any questions?” he asked.
Seems about right that he would ask that, given that so far in these NBA playoffs Gordon has been one of the players with all the answers in the biggest moments — when games are on the line.
He is one of the contenders for the unofficial title of Mr. Game Winner of these playoffs, his case built around a no-time-left dunk — believed to be the first of its kind in postseason history — to beat the Los Angeles Clippers in Round 1, then a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.
“Did I know it was in? I knew it wasn't a miss," Gordon said of his latest game winner.
And Gordon isn't alone in being part of these down-to-the-wire moments.
Tyrese Haliburton — another Mr. Game Winner candidate — now has two such shots as well in these playoffs, the latest coming in the form of a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to beat top-seeded Cleveland 120-119 on Tuesday night for a 2-0 Pacers lead in that series. That one came after he had a layup with 1.4 seconds left in overtime of the Pacers’ series-clinching, frantic Game 5 rally in the final moments to oust Milwaukee.
“Obviously, had to get lucky,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Tuesday night after Haliburton’s latest heroics led his team's second successful comeback from seven points down and less than a minute left in a three-game span. “Tyrese hit another amazing shot to win the game. You don’t see this very often, let alone twice in one week. We’re very fortunate.”
He’s right. You don’t see this very often.
There are five players — Robert Horry in 2002, LeBron James in 2006 and 2018, Jamal Murray last year, and now Gordon and Haliburton this year — who have hit two go-ahead shots in the final 10 seconds of wins in the same postseason. That’s it. That’s the whole list.
“This is what I do,” Haliburton said in the on-court interview afterward, still out of breath.
Round 2 is just getting underway in these NBA playoffs and already there have been 15 games decided by three points or fewer, matching or exceeding the total from each of the last 10 playoff years. The New York Knicks have won five games so far in the playoffs, four of them by three points or fewer.
“We’re just going to keep fighting,” the Knicks' Mikal Bridges said after the Game 1 win at Boston on Monday night. “That’s who we are ... and we keep showing it.”
This is not normal: So far, 30% of games in this year's playoffs going into Tuesday have been decided by three points or fewer. It's happening about twice as often as it did last season and about three times as often as it did in other postseason runs over the last decade.
Of those 15 games so far decided by three points or fewer, five of them have had a go-ahead basket in the final 10 seconds. There's the two by Haliburton, the two by Gordon, and the other was New York’s Jalen Brunson hitting a 3-pointer to beat Detroit in Round 1.
Brunson was the NBA's top clutch player this season. Haliburton is an Olympic champion. Gordon was part of Denver's run to the NBA title two years ago. In the biggest moments, they know what is required.
“It’s not about putting the team on my back," Brunson said. "I have confidence in them. They have confidence in me. We're going to compete. We're going to find the best way to attack each possession. It may look like I get the credit ... but it's not just me.”
Brunson had a chance to win Game 1 at Boston with a last-second floater in regulation — “not clutch enough,” he mused when asked about it after the Knicks finished off the overtime win — but the Knicks found a way anyway.
New York was down by 20 in that game and won; Boston was 40-1 this season in games when it had a lead of 20 or more.
Denver was down by 14 at Oklahoma City and won; the Thunder are 64-2 this season in games in which they led by at least 12 points against anybody besides the Nuggets, but they're only 2-3 in such games against Denver.
The Nuggets now have three wins by three points or fewer so far in these playoffs.
“We make stupid mistakes,” Denver star Nikola Jokic, who had a historic 42-point, 22-rebound effort, told Altitude TV after the Game 1 win. “But we find a way.”
At this time of year, finding a way is the only thing that's required. Haliburton, Gordon and Brunson have proven that.
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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
