The NBA playoffs have been highly entertaining already, but of all the series going on, none has been more of a roller coaster ride than Nuggets-Clippers. Denver found a way to survive in game one with a comeback win in overtime, but the Clippers answered last night by out-executing the Nuggets down the stretch in a 105-102 road win to seize home-court advantage. Kawhi Leonard was the story, as he shot an incredible 15-19 from the floor on his way to 39 points, but there were also crucial mistakes made by the Nuggets that cost them a chance to go up 2-0.
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Denver has one of the best players in the world in Nikola Jokić, but outside of the three-time MVP, they’ve been a mess for a while now, even though they secured the No. 4 seed in a tightly contested Western Conference. Head coach Mike Malone and general manager Calvin Booth were both fired with just a few games remaining in the season, and even in Game 1, the Nuggets did their best to give the game away multiple times after erasing a 15-point deficit.
Aaron Gordon is typically one of Denver’s most reliable players, but he let a potentially huge play get away from him with just under three minutes remaining and the Nuggets down one. After Christian Braun found him with a little shovel pass in the lane, Gordon had an unopposed path to the basket, but he missed a wide-open dunk.
Aaron Gordon with the unbelievable powerful missed dunk, late in the 4th (with a replay). pic.twitter.com/0hM0PhLUL0
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) April 22, 2025
Adding insult to injury, the ball flew out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Clippers. Shannon Sharpe called out this moment as one of the turning points of the game on last night’s Nightcap podcast, saying to his co-host Chad Johnson, “Ocho, you can’t miss that!”
Sharpe pointed out that Gordon, who is normally one of the best dunkers in the NBA, usually goes up with two hands in a spot like that. That would have been a smarter play than to try to bring the house down with a one-handed jam, but Gordon and his teammates will need to get over it quickly because Game 3 looms on Thursday night.
In a series as close as Nuggets-Clippers, every mistake is amplified
The Nuggets got away with more than their share of mistakes in Game 1, most notably from Russell Westbrook, who ping-ponged between some of the most bone-headed plays you’ve ever seen and some all-time hero stuff to save the Nuggets.
Sharpe thinks the Nuggets are now in trouble, and he may be right. The advanced metrics say that the Clippers have been arguably the best team in the league for the last month or so. The Intuit Dome is one of the toughest places in the league to play, and the Clippers had a 30-11 record there this year. The Nuggets have to find a way to win at least one there.
Losing games three and four in L.A. would create a hole that’s nearly impossible to dig out of, especially if Kawhi continues to play like he did in game two. This season has been spiraling out of control for a while now, and Gordon’s missed dunk might be the thing that finally sends it completely off the rails.
