Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon has become dragon-slayer of NBA Playoffs, looking good making Kevin Durant look bad

Aaron Gordon has slayed more heavyweights than Joe Louis, more wizards than Voldemort, more dragons than Euron Greyjoy.

Before Gordon waltzed into his nightmares with arm extended, hand in his face, the last time Kevin Durant missed at least nine three-point attempts in the NBA Playoffs was (checks notes) five stinking Aprils ago. The number of times KD had misfired 10 times from 3-point land in a postseason game before Gordon and the Nuggets put down the clamps in Game 2? Zero.

“There were a few possessions when I’m watching that film (Tuesday) and I freeze it and you have Bruce (Brown) and Aaron Gordon — I mean, I’m gonna frame it and put it in my house,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone gushed Wednesday at Ball Arena before the team flew to Phoenix for Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series with the Suns.

“It’s like a work of art (on) a double contest. That’s championship defense right there.”

We’ve seen the Nuggets without Jamal Murray. We’ve seen them without Michael Porter Jr. But where would this beast be right now, 6-1 in the postseason, up 2-0 on favored Phoenix, without Aaron Gordon, star-wrecker and dragon-slayer?

“I mean, going to the playoffs,” Brown, the Nuggets’ fearless, multi-faceted swing man, said of Gordon, this roster’s secret MVP, “we knew that was going to happen.”

Durant has two titles on his CV. He’s a career 29.3-point-per-game scorer in the playoffs, a career 48% shooter and a career 36% slinger from beyond the arc during the postseason. Through two games and over almost 17 minutes while guarded by the 6-foot-8 Gordon, KD has shot 8 for 20 from the floor (40%), 1 for 5 on treys (20%) with only two free-throw attempts and five turnovers, according to NBA.com tracking stats, a dragon firing on a wounded wing.

“This is not “bulletin-board” material,” Malone continued. “He is not stopping Kevin Durant. No one is. But he’s making it hard. That’s all you can hope for. He’s making it hard and not giving him any easy ones.”

Two springs ago, two playoffs ago, Gordon looked out of his depth. Now he’s drowning stars with his defense and sinking gameplans with his shooting range.

The pressing and vanishing of No. 50’s forgettable 2021 postseason has been replaced by calm, cool and confidence. Gordon’s offensive efficiency rating of 135 points per 100 possessions in the playoffs, via Basketball-Reference.com, leads the Nuggets’ eight-man postseason rotation — MPJ is next, at 127, Nikola Jokic third at 124. After a mercurial 60.8% free-throw percentage during the regular season, Playoff Gordon has turned into a postseason closer at the stripe, draining 88.9% of his foul shots on 27 trips to the line.

“He’s locked in, he’s disciplined,” Malone noted. “He’s selfless. Offensively, his efficiency right now around the rim, from the 3-point line (is stellar) and, most importantly, from the foul line he’s just going up there relaxed, taking his time and shooting the ball with great confidence. And I think these seven games have been some of the most consistent basketball that Aaron Gordon has played in a Denver Nugget uniform.”

Two seasons earlier against these same Suns, during the same round, Gordon found himself a passenger for the most part, shooting 52.3% from the floor, averaging 12.0 points and 2.5 boards while recording a negative-15 plus/minus. Fast forward 24 months, and after two games vs. Phoenix, the ex-Arizona star is shooting 63.6%, averaging 19.5 points, 3.5 boards and putting up a plus-minus of plus-36.

“The thing that jumps out to me in these playoffs is (that) Aaron is the definition of selfless,” Malone said. “I mean, talk about a guy that, knowing that (MPJ) and Jamal were back, has checked his ego at the door the whole season and he quietly goes under the radar. But the impact he is having is so profound both on offense and defense, (especially) by taking the other team’s best player (defensively).”

Another NBA dragon, Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns, got wiped clean off the box score by AG early in the Minnesota series the way Broncos tackle Gary Zimmerman would erase pass-rushers at old Mile High. Per NBA.com, KAT with Gordon guarding him posted almost as many turnovers (nine) as makes (10) over five games, shooting 37% from the floor and 11% from beyond the arc.

By the time Towns got a little groove back, the big guy was down 3-0, with one eye staring into the abyss and the other locked onto a beach in Cancun.

“He’s doing exactly what we want him to do — knocking down threes and just being a dog that he is,” Brown said of Gordon. “So when he’s doing that, then we’re unbeatable.”

When he’s doing that, history isn’t just shaped by a few winners. It’s a tale written by many hands, fingers outstretched, contesting shooters and doubters alike, until they dance into destiny’s embrace.

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