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Aaron Gordon's series-saving dunk proved just how difficult it will be to actually bury the Nuggets

Robert Zeglinski   For The Win

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win's basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Here's Robert Zeglinski.

Hey there, friends! Happy Monday.

I've watched a lot of Nuggets basketball over the last few years. I've seen this group led by three-time MVP Nikola Jokic at their lowest lows. The firing of their head coach and general manager right before the start of these NBA playoffs comes to mind most. I've seen them at their highest highs, such as when they went a dominant 16-4 through the entire 2023 postseason en route to the first championship in franchise history.

While I don't think this specific Nuggets team has the horses to win the 2025 title (yes, you gotta play the games, I know), Aaron Gordon's miraculous game-winning dunk on Saturday night reminds me of an evergreen fact about this era of Denver basketball.

If you're trying to beat them in a playoff series like the L.A. Clippers are right now, you better make sure the dirt is on top before you bury them. If you give them any solitary opening, they will crawl out of the ground by the very tips of their fingernails and emerge, unthinkably prepared for another slugfest.

They've never gone down easy. Amidst all their flaws, and regardless of whether they win or lose, these Nuggets have always made their playoff opponents earn every single inch. That, above everything, is the most commendable trait of the team led by the best player in the world:

As the Nuggets and Clippers effectively get set for a best-of-three series to advance to the second round this week, it's worth remembering how much alligator blood Denver's players have coursing through their veins.

It's who they are.

In the 2020 bubble, the Nuggets became the first NBA team to ever come back and win a playoff series from down 3-1 ... twice. (Note: Ironically, while only main characters like Kawhi Leonard remain in place, one of those wins came at the expense of the Clippers.) In 2021, without an injured Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., Jokic and company somehow overcame a Portland Trail Blazers squad led by near-peak Damian Lillard in six first-round games.

Dearest readers, those Nuggets gave Argentinian "legend" Facundo Campazzo significant rotation minutes. They had no business making any meaningful playoff run, but they made it work. Somehow.

In 2024, LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers kept landing haymaker after haymaker. In fact, it sure felt like the purple and gold were in firm control for most of the series. The Nuggets advanced in five games anyway, thanks in large part to two last-second Jamal Murray shots. When it seemed like the fiery Minnesota Timberwolves had Denver backed into a corner in the next round up 2-0, the shorthanded Nuggets, with an ailing Murray, didn't wave the white flag. Instead, they won three straight games in resounding fashion behind masterful Jokic performances.

This year? The story is much of the same. The Clippers look just a little better. The Nuggets look gassed and are barely playing six rotation players right now. Honestly, given Gordon's persistent, season-long calf strain and Porter's shoulder injury that has team staffers helping him with his jersey, they don't even have six healthy, playable rotation pieces at the moment. But, somehow, Denver pulled off a stunning 15-point comeback to snatch Game 1. Then, it managed to keep the ship from sinking into the abyss after blowing a 22-point lead in Game 4, expressly because of Gordon's amazing buzzer-beating dunk.

No matter what adversity they face, no matter how vulnerable they may seem, these Nuggets do not stop coming. And just when you relax as an opponent, thinking there's no way they'll keep fighting, that's when they are at their best. I mean, they have eight playoff comebacks from down 15-plus points (!) since 2019, you guys.

That should speak for itself.

So, let this serve as a warning to the Clippers, who should know better than anyone what Jokic's Nuggets are about. No matter how poorly the streaky Murray or Porter are shooting. No matter how uncharacteristically sloppy Jokic might be. No matter how hurt and exhausted they seem while playing over 40 minutes every night. These Nuggets will always be there in winning time, ready to simply outlast you through their sheer, unflappable will.

If you're gonna write them off, you better make sure they have no pulse first.

Get well soon, Dame

Welp. What everyone feared after watching Damian Lillard go down with a non-contact injury on Sunday night has come to fruition. On Monday, it was confirmed that the Milwaukee Bucks star tore his Achilles, ending his season on a devastating note after he had already returned from a scary blood clot.

In moments like this, I understand the tendency people have to talk big picture, especially regarding what the future might hold for the Bucks. But that time will come soon enough. For now, I would like to extend my well-wishes to Lillard, as he deserves such respect. He's a guy who seemed to have legitimate superpowers in his heyday and is genuinely one of the most electric basketball players I've ever had the pleasure of watching.

Lillard will be 35 soon and faces a tough recovery road ahead after one of the worst injuries an athlete can sustain. To be candid, it doesn't look good. I really hope this isn't the last we see of him shining on an NBA stage.

Shootaround

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