The Oklahoma City Thunder seemed to be well on their way to a rather stress-free Game 1 victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of a Western Conference semifinals series before a combination of Nikola Jokic, disastrous strategy and a wide-open Aaron Gordon combined to send everyone home shellshocked. After Gordon hit a go-ahead three-pointer to steal the game for Denver, TNT's Stephanie Ready attempted to get to the bottom of what the heck had just happened out there. Gordon, still clearly with a million thoughts in his mind, tried to catch his breath as he explained, citing the Nuggets' pesky belief in themselves.

"Great poise," he said. "Great poise with this team. Between Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, you've got Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook, you got [Christian Braun] whose stepping into his own. A lot of guys stepped up but I think our poise and our belief that we were going to win no matter the circumstances."

Few really believed Denver was going to win in hostile territory when they faced an 11-point deficit with 4:31 remaining in regulation. But they kept grinding and taking advantage of the Thunder's decision to keep fouling them, bizarrely prolonging the game. Jokic scored 11 points from that point on, leaving the door wide-open for Russell Westbrook to make yet another clutch play this postseason when he found an unguarded Gordon for the game-altering shot.

Denver now has home-court advantage and the opportunity to steal Game 2 against an understandably raw Thunder side. Gordon makes a good point that, despite the drama that's surrounded his team this year and the oddness of them becoming almost afterthoughts in title discussions while trotting Jokic out there, they are a seasoned team with a championship pedigree. It's one game but their poise was a stark contrast to what was on display from Oklahoma City.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Aaron Gordon Explains How Nuggets Were Able to Pull of Miracle Comeback vs. Thunder.

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