Unfortunately for David Adelman, there’s only one Aaron Gordon.

“It’s funny. AG’s so talented that you want him in two places at once,” the Nuggets interim coach said Sunday. “He’s a corner 3-point shooter, but he’s also the best guy to have in the dunker, so it’s hard.”

With the way the Clippers guarded the Nuggets, especially late in Denver’s 112-110 overtime win in Saturday’s Game 1, Adelman wanted to have a shooter in the corner and a lob threat on the block to maximize Denver’s advantages when Los Angeles focused on slowing down Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray with an extra defender.

Gordon has long been regarded as an elite lob threat since he’s joined Denver. When Murray breaks the defense’s containment and finds Jokic on the roll to the rim, the opposing team’s low-man defender is forced into an impossible decision – contest Jokic’s highly efficient floater or allow Jokic to flip a lob in the direction of a guy who’s participated in multiple dunk contests. The 29-year-old made 5 of his 7 shots inside the restricted area and grabbed the rebound on one of the two misses Saturday.

“I’m just trying to take pressure off of Mal and Jok,” Gordon said of his approach when exploiting mismatches. “Just make them think about more than just the two-man game.”

This season, there’s an added wrinkle that gives Adelman another way to weaponize his starting power forward. Coming into the season, Gordon had never shot better than 35% from 3-point range in a season. He finished the regular season at 43.6% on 172 attempts. Had he not missed 31 games in the regular season and made several more 3-pointers over the course of the regular season, he would’ve been listed with the league’s sixth-best 3-point percentage this season. One playoff game wasn’t enough for him to determine whether teams have been paying his shot more respect.

“Not sure, I don’t really think about it,” Gordon said. “If they leave me, I’m going to make myself available and do what I’ve been doing all season.”

In previous postseasons teams have dared Gordon to shoot. He made the Lakers and Timberwolves pay for that last season, shooting a career-best 40.7% from 3 last postseason. He was a 39% shooter from deep during Denver’s championship run in 2023. He missed his first attempt of this postseason, a clean look off a Jokic pass, but didn’t make the same mistake in the clutch.

With Denver down four in the final five minutes, Gordon positioned himself on the left wing, while Jokic posted up James Harden at the free throw line. As soon as Nicolas Batum, the closer defender to Gordon, offered helped, Jokic threw a bounce pass to Gordon, while Christian Braun screened Ivica Zubac, the Clippers’ second-closest defender. It was a one-point game a few seconds later.

The 3-pointer was part of Gordon’s seven-point fourth quarter. Then, he scored six of Denver’s 14 points in overtime, finishing with 25 points, eight rebounds, two steals and an assist in nearly 46 minutes of playing time.

Russell Westbrook and Braun, two other players the Clippers dared to shootthe ball in Game 1, also hit massive 3s that helped the Nuggets hold on despite Jokic scoring 25 of his 29 points in the first three quarters. How Denver handles similar defense the rest of the series, which continues with Monday’s Game 2 at Ball Arena, could go a long way in determining which team advances to the second round. Having two Gordons would make Adelman’s job a lot easier.

“There were multiple times last night where I was kind of going back and forth. Do I put Russ in the dunker? But he’s a smaller guy, and it’s hard to finish against a guy like Zubac or whoever’s out there, Kawhi (Leonard). AG’s going to finish that. At the same time, AG has shot the ball so fluidly all year long. Those are decisions we’re going to have to make throughout the game. It’ll depend on how they’re rotating, how aggressive they’re rotating and is the dunker more important than him taking a wide-open shot?” Adelman said.

“That’s growth for our team, and that has to continue.”

Nuggets Game 2 injury report

Aaron Gordon – probable (right calf injury management)

DaRon Holmes – out (right Achilles tendon repair)