Christmas Day games are a treat to watch for most NBA fans, not just because they are in a holiday spirit, but because players play with some extra enthusiasm when more eyeballs are on them. Aaron Gordon, of the Denver Nuggets, produced the best highlight of this year’s eve and probably the dunk of the year as well.
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The 6ft 9’ forward actually had the night every other player hopes for when most of the nation is watching them with their families. His 28-point double-double performance was full of highlights. However, one among them just blew the lights off the Ball Arena in Denver.
It certainly blew away Landry Shamet, who hoped it gets called for an offensive foul, and it did, but to the Suns’ guard’s dismay, the call got overturned as he was leaning into Gordon. Had the call not been corrected, it would surely make some people mad, including Richard Jefferson.
Aaron Gordon had the dunk of the season on Christmas Day
The former Cavaliers forward himself had a tremendous poster dunk on Christmas Day. What makes it special is that it was on the head of Warriors’ Klay Thompson, as both teams were cutthroat rivals at the time.
On Sunday, Jeff was in the commentary box during Gordon’s poster on Shamet and surely lost his mind when it happened. The timing of it, coming at the tail end of the overtime, made it even crazier.
He even Tweeted after the game that his excitement at the moment could’ve cost him his job.
Meanwhile, NBA Twitter was happy that they did overturn the decision to a no-foul.
Gordon’s 28-13 and Nikola Jokic’s 41-15-15 performance meant a Denver win
The Suns played almost the entire game without their All-Star Devin Booker after he left the game within the first 5 minutes with a groin struggle. Shamet took care of his scoring load and went for a season-high 31 points and 6 assists with Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul contributing 22 and 17 points.
However, none of them proved enough to stop the Nuggets who had Gordon and their MVP Jokic in their groove. While the latter posted 41 points, 15 rebounds, and 15 assists leading his team in all three categories, Gordon’s play became the highlight of what was supposed to be statement games for the Suns.
It might probably go down as one of the greatest Christmas Day dunks in one of the best games Christmas Day Games of all time.
