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Aaron Gordon Made NBA Playoff History With Crazy Buzzer-Beating Dunk to Beat Clippers

It was the first game-winning, buzzer-beating dunk in postseason history.
Liam McKeone|
Gordon evened up the series at 2-2 with his game-winner
Gordon evened up the series at 2-2 with his game-winner | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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Denver Nuggets

Aaron Gordon shocked the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, slamming home a buzzer-beating dunk off a Nikola Jokic airball to pull the Denver Nuggets to 2-2 in the first-round playoff series. It was a shocking, exciting play that reminded fans how much fun the drama of the postseason can be.

It also made history.

Per ESPN, Gordon's game-winner was the first buzzer-beating, game-winning dunk in NBA playoff history.

For those of you who remember Deandre Ayton winning a Western Conference playoff game against these same Clippers in a very similar fashion: his was not a true buzzer-beater. Ayton slammed home an alley-oop in the 2021 playoffs to give the Phoenix Suns a lead, but there was 0.7 seconds left on the clock afterwards.

Gordon truly stands alone in basketball history with arguably the coolest buzzer-beater and/or game-winner in sports: the buzzer-beating, game-winning dunk. What a game.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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