Nikola Jokic has praised his Denver Nuggets teammate Aaron Gordon after the win over the Miami Heat.
The Nuggets claimed a 104-93 in Game One of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. Game Two of the series takes place at the Ball Arena on Sunday evening.
Jokic recorded a historic triple-double in the win over the Heat, scoring 27 points with 10 rebounds and 14 assists. In doing so he became the second player in NBA history to record a triple-double on their Finals debut, following Jason Kidd for the New Jersey Nets in 2002 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
One record that Jokic did break was recording the most assists in an NBA Finals game which had been held for more than 50 years. NBA legend Bill Russell held the previous record with 13 which he achieved in 1969 for the Boston Celtics.
Even though Jokic will be leading the majority of the headlines following the Game One loss, he still took time to praise his teammates. One who Jokic was quite impressed with was Gordon.
The forward scored 16 points with six rebounds and one assist, which while lower than Jokic in every department, he is still valued by his coach and teammates. Jokic even remarked on Gordon in his post-game comments.
“I love to play with him,” said Jokic. “I love to play with dominant big men. The best thing he’s doing is accepting his role, and he’s done a great job of that.”
Gordon was asked about his performance after the game, in particular taking advantage of his height over the opposition players. Jokic was occupying Heat defender Bam Adebayo, which left Gordon available to play against the other opponents.
"You've got to play to your advantages at this time of year and all the time," said Gordon after the Game One win. "I was just looking to play to my advantages."
It’s not just Jokic who is a fan of Gordon, but also Nuggets head coach Michael Malone. The 51-year-old praised Gordon for going up against the Heat’s star player in Jimmy Butler, but also remarked on how the victory was a team effort rather than just down to individuals.
"I thought he did a hell of a job taking on that challenge of guarding a guy like Jimmy Butler," said Malone.
"I felt as a group, a collective unit, I felt our guys did a hell of a job, as well. He does a lot of the dirty work for us, and a lot of times he doesn't get the credit that he deserves.
“They were switching early on and I felt he was really big in terms of sitting down in front of the rim, scoring in the paint and finishing at the rim. And again, just his effort on the defensive end was just another example of his importance to our group."
