Only a few days ago, Rudy Gobert took home his career’s fourth Defensive Player of the Year award and joined the elite company of some NBA greats. For the entire season, he was the defensive anchor for the Timberwolves and helped them become the best defensive team in the league. However, going up against Gobert in tonight’s Game 5, Aaron Gordon seemed unbothered by the number of trophies in the seven-footer’s cabinet as he made a wild attempt to put the Center on his dunking highlight, even making Pacers’ legend Reggie Miller jump off his seat in excitement.

As Denver was closing in on another dominant quarter, just like the first two, Nikola Jokić drove to the basket, attracting Gobert toward him. But as he saw the DPOY approaching, the Joker gave up the ball to Aaron Gordon, who then took off from the dotted line, ready to put Gobert on a poster. Unfortunately, the high flyer’s attempt was denied by a hard foul from the French Center who likely did not want to end up on the other side of Gordon’s career highlight. However, Gordon’s failed attempt was enough to get Reggie Miller off his seat on the announcer’s desk as he yelled, “He was trying to end Rudy Gobert’s life right there!”

Even the Nuggets bench and the entire Ball Arena were off their feet as they saw Aaron Gordon take flight. Then, although not in the way Gordon initially wanted, he added two points to the board because of that play as he knocked down both free throws that resulted from Gobert’s foul. We can only wonder how hyped the NBA World would have been if Gordon had actually finished that dunk that Miller claimed also possibly intended to “end Gobert’s career.”

Denver wins with another Aaron Gordon masterclass

Unfortunately, Gordon wasn’t able to finish his dunk on Gobert. But what he did on the court all night, and has been doing these entire playoffs, is enough to make up for his one miss. Although not as great as the last game in Minnesota, Gordon displayed another masterclass in tonight’s crucial game and scored an eighteen-point double-double to help his team get the lead for the first time in this series. Not wanting to be known as just a dunker, which was slowly starting to become his reputation after he participated in the Slam Dunk contest, Gordon has completely transformed as a player since moving to Denver.

Last year, he helped the Nuggets win a title by averaging over thirteen points and six boards. And his performance has gotten even better in this year’s playoffs as his scoring average has increased to 15.6 points. Even his rebounding and assistant numbers have scaled significantly, nearly touching eight and five, respectively. In the last game, when his team needed him, Gordon dropped a twenty-seven-point performance to tie the series. But what was more shocking was that he only missed one shot the entire night, even causing his opponents to give him his flowers after the game.

While Rudy Gobert saw a glimpse of Kobe Bryant in Gordon’s performance, “A lot of them were contested so if Gordon turns into Kobe Bryant, we just got to live with that.” Ant-Man had just a one-word reaction after looking at Gordon’s numbers, “Aaron Gordon, tsss.”

And once again tonight, Gordon proved how important he is for his team. With one more win standing between the Nuggets and the Conference Finals, Gordon would hope to continue his impressive form and finish the job on Thursday.