INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- After every game, Aaron Gordon spends 20 minutes at his locker icing a right calf injury that has hindered him all season. For one of the NBA's highest fliers, it has been a painful, frustrating nuisance. He cannot jump as high as he used to. His elite athleticism has been affected.
But Saturday evening Gordon jumped just high enough to catch and dunk one of the most important shots of the year -- the first buzzer-beating, game-winning dunk in playoff history -- to help the Denver Nuggets beat the LA Clippers 101-99 in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series at Intuit Dome.