DENVER — Aaron Gordon sat at his locker, intermittently shaking his head. The subject of his stare shifted — his phone, a stat sheet, the ground at his feet — as if he was searching for something. Some answers, maybe, for what the hell had just happened out there.
Denver had led Game 2 of the 2023 NBA Finals on Sunday night by 15 points midway through the second quarter and by 8 with less than a minute left in the third. But after a fourth quarter in which the Nuggets got their doors blown off — a 36-25 finish, marked by ghastly defensive lapses, repeated unforced errors and a widespread lack of composure, punctuated with a would-be tying step-back 3-pointer by Jamal Murray that caromed off the front of the rim in the closing second of a 111-108 loss — the suit of armor that the West’s No.