The NBA is a funny place. The three best teams in the NBA during the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston Celtics, all lost Game 1 on their home floor to start the second round. The Denver Nuggets were the biggest beneficiaries following some free throw misses from Chet Holmgren and an epic three-pointer from Aaron Gordon to help the Nuggets steal Game 1 on the road.
Many assumed those top three teams would be among the final four left standing in the Conference Finals next round. That could still happen, but the Nuggets may have other ideas. Denver’s resilience showed through in incredible ways last night, and there’s little reason to doubt that the Nuggets can make enough plays to defeat the OKC Thunder in a series now. That wasn’t the expectation before Game 1, but then Gordon flipped the series on its head.
On the latest episode of Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn recaps the Denver Nuggets amazing Game 1 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Aaron Gordon made big plays, including the game-winning three with two seconds left. Nikola Jokic kept the game close with high effort and dynamic scoring. The Nuggets had no business stealing Game 1 from SGA and OKC, but they managed it, so what does that mean for the rest of the series?
Ryan breaks down Gordon’s second big moment of the playoffs, Jokic’s greatness, the Thunder’s possible response in Game 2, and much more.
Pickaxe and Roll is a Nuggets podcast streamed live on YouTube every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 10am MT. You can catch episodes live by subscribing to the Mile High Sports YouTube channel and turning on Bell Notifications.
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