In Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets find the defensive secret sauce

After a blistering hot first half from Damian Lillard in Game 2 of the first-round series between the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers, the Nuggets adapted and found a way to slow him down.

Dame still finished with an impressive 42 points and 10 assists in 42 minutes of action but 32 of those points came in the first half on 8-11 shooting from behind the arc. The first reaction from head coach Michael Malone was to insert the fresh Shaq Harrison who hadn’t played in the series up until then.

Harrison was able to stick to Lillard’s body as he tried to curl off a screen and then he didn’t fall for the bait after Dame fished for three free throws.

To open up the second half, something had to be done about Dame and it wasn’t certain that Harrison could keep up his production after the 1:48 sample size. Although, his defense led to an eight-nothing run in his short stint.

The answer was Aaron Gordon as Malone made a quick adjustment to put the longer big man on Lillard.

The effects were felt immediately. Lillard struggled to get a shot off, let alone make a shot. For the third quarter, Lillard was 2-5 from the floor and 1-3 from the 3-point line, good, but nowhere near as scorching hot as he was in the second quarter.

At 6-foot-9, Gordon demonstrated his multifaceted defensive ability, starting the night as the other big man next to Nikola Jokic, defending bigs before guarding the smallest player on the court in Dame.

The results speak for themselves as without Dame, this Portland team struggles to make an impact on the floor and the Denver Nuggets were able to steal Game 2, winning 128-109.

In an article from the morning of Game 2, I wrote that:

"“There’s a fine line for NBA coaches knowing whether to stick with what they’ve got or when to make an adjustment. Malone has a big decision to make heading into Game 2 and it’s up to the Basketball Gods to decide if the shots fall.”"

It was in reference to Jusuf Nurkic’s comments about letting Jokic score, being able to get his points while not getting his teammates involved. But the same philosophy works here, while Facundo Campazzo started the night off guarding Lillard, Malone made a quick adjustment mid-game and it proved vital.

After a disappointing Game 1 loss, the coin has suddenly flipped and the Denver Nuggets look to be favorites to win the series. The biggest X-factor might just be Aaron Gordon’s ability to hang with Damian Lillard.

Denver Nuggets: Other takeaways from Game 2

• Jokic keeps killing this Portland single-cover defense, putting in an extremely efficient 38 points on 15-20 shooting. While Nurkic has a point about stopping Jokic’s playmaking, it might not matter if the soon-to-be MVP keeps torching them.
• While Aaron Gordon’s defense will grab the headlines from tonight, he and Monte Morris were a team-high +19 on the night, both playing extremely efficient playoff basketball.
• Nurkic got fouled off in the fourth quarter of tonight’s game and that was the final nail in the coffin for a Portland team that is dangerously shallow without him. In 25 minutes of action, Nurkic was +0 – that’s excellent considering who he’s mostly playing against.
• Facundo Campazzo. That’s the bullet point.
• And finally, being an NBA referee must be a very hard job. Tonight, they entered the third quarter of a fast-paced, action-packed game and slowed it down to a snail crawl with their tech and flagrant calls.