Breaking News 🚨 Aaron Gordon likely out for Game 7 + Keys for Nuggets-Thunder | SportsCenter

ESPN NBA Senior Insider Shams Charania joins SportsCenter with breaking news that Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon will be unlikely to play in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Then David Dennis Jr., Quentin Richardson, Tim MacMahon and Chiney Oguwmike break down the key players in today’s matchup.

0:00 Gordon likely out for Game 7
1:21 Russell Westbrook will be key for Nuggets
2:27 Jokic needs to take more of the load
3:20 Jalen Williams has to step up for Thunder
4:00 Thunder needs SGA to play like the MVP
4:53 Game 7 predictions
7:01 Thunder’s focus heading into Game 7
7:58 Confidence in Denver without Gordon?
9:08 OKC backcourt will be key

☑️ Subscribe to ESPN+: https://plus.espn.com/
📱 Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
🏀 Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2yxs3Og
☑️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
☑️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN #NBA

All right, speaking of um news and watching, we got some breaking news impacting the Nuggets Thunder game seven. Bringing in senior NBA insider Shamsani. Shams, what do you have? Jay, sources tell me Aaron Gordon has a grade 2 left hamstring strain. He needs approximately one month to recover from the injury. And as much as he’s trying everything he possibly can to play in today’s pivotal game seven for Western Conference Finals birth in Oklahoma City, he could very well miss the remainder of the playoffs as it’s becoming physically improbable to play through this grade 2 hamstring strain. And it’s just difficult timing for Aaron Gordon. He’s been one of the best players in the playoffs. Several game-winning gamety shots. So look for Denver to rely on Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther to step up with potentially Aaron Gordon out tonight today and moving forward. It’s a grade two hamstring strain his status for game seven unlikely. He’s potentially out today and for a period of time extended period of time moving forward. All right, Gordon likely out today. Our Tim McMahon earlier said this is not a two and a half day injury. It was going to be several weeks and you just confirmed that Shams Sham Shirani with the latest on Aaron Gordon. Thank you so much, my friend. Look, I’m going to say something that Nuggets fans may be grabbing for their brunch cocktail during the game, but this season, the rest of their season hinders on the Russell Westbrook experience. He is going to have to show up big time for them to have continue on with their season. Yes, Peyton Watson is going to be coming up and playing minutes, but Russell Westbrook is probably going to be the guy who is going to have to come out and close this game. And the last three day games from him have been rough. made six shots. He’s had seven turnovers. He’s a minus 10 on the series and he’s shooting 19% from three. But this is Russell Westbrook, guys. This guy is a winner. And he is going to go out there and say, “If you’re going to leave me open for these threes, I’m going to try to nail these nail these shots and I’m going to do what I said early in this playoffs. I’m going to muck this game up with my defense and make things tough for this this Thunder team.” You are going to be leaning on Russell Westbrook and the chaos he brings to survive in this game seven. Hey man, I hear you two chains. You hype this morning, but I’m I’m I’mma roll with the big dog, man. Listen, as much as they definitely need the support of everybody else if AG is out, I feel like that more the more of the load goes on Joker. He’s got to be that much more special, that much more big time. He’s been that this whole time. He’s kept them in this series almost single-handedly with the way he’s been dominant and he’s found a way to score on in the inside against those two bigs that OKC had. But tonight, he’s got to go all out. This got to be one of his most dominant performances. A 40, 30, 20, whatever he want to do, however he want to bring it, but he has to be the goods tonight. He has to be MVP, Joker, and dominant for them to have a chance. You said 40, 30, 20, and people probably look and be like, “Oh my gosh, you know what? It’s the Joker, so he could definitely go out there and do it for that Denver Nuggets team. He definitely could do it. For what it was worth though, Gordon did participate in the team Saturday walkthrough. So maybe he might be able to go today. We’ll see. As for the Thunder, they’re trying to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2016. So David, how do they avoid getting let down for a second straight season? Jaylen Williams, simple as that. This guy has to show up. Where have you been as the number two on the best team in the league? Other than game three when he had a 30 plus game, this dude is averaging 13 points on this series on 29% from the field and 15% from three. He needs to show up because SGA is going to be pressured all game seven and they’re going to say Jaylen Williams go out there and score and and beat us. Especially without if Aaron Gordon is going to be limited and can’t play the type of defense he usually plays, this has to be the Jaylen Williams game. Here’s a theme I’m going with. I mean, I’m going with the big dogs. I’m going Listen, listen. If they want to have a chance, it’s SGA. Just like for the for for the uh for the for the Nuggets, it was it was Joker. They need SGA to be MVP level SGA. He’s been up and down. Hasn’t been the SGA we saw all year just giving everybody gravy. He struggled a little bit with this team. He needs to come out tonight and set the tone at home in his building. Give his fans something to cheer for and he needs to lead the way regardless of Jaylen Williams comes tonight. He has to have a high 30, high 40 point game and be big time tonight. Yeah, game seven. It sounds like it’s just going to be the battle of the big dogs between OKC and Denver. Thunder favored by eight and a half points over at ESPN. Guys, thanks so much for the insight. I love Russell Westbrook being referred to as a chaos agent. if he could have a big game at this point in his career that that would really be something and such a critical game and we have Jokic and we have SGA which team moves on Q man I mean just looking at everything not them not having AG at full strength because I don’t feel like even if he is available he is there’s no way he could be at full strength or very impactful so I I look at it man this is a this is a big opportunity SGA and those thunder he has to lead the team but he has to have his biggest game right now he hasn’t been the SGA that we saw all season long, flawlessly scoring, scoring easily. Denver has made it difficult for him. He has to find his way to make this one of his best games of the season, of the offseason and this series. And he and if he can do that, he can lead them to the victory. Okay, so you’re going thunder if Joic plays at his full potential, which he has not at times in this series. What about you, David? Who do you think advances? Look, this this I love this series so much and this game so much because it is an absolute tossup still even with AG not being at 100% because the uh the Denver Nuggets still have the best player in the world and Nicole Joic who can make miracles on that court. This dude can put up some one of those games, those Wilt Chamberlain like games like he did in game one. 40 points, 15 or so assists, 10 10 or 15 rebounds, 10 assists, something like that that can pull this team out. Cuz what we have here is a competition between championship level experience on one side and on the other side, you have youth, athleticism, and a team that does not have that experience. This is anybody’s game, but Jokic is definitely going to show why he is the best player in the world, win, lose, or draw in game seven. Obviously, OKC also has home court. You have to go all the way back, by the way, to Larry Bird and Bernard King in 1984 to find top two players in MVP voting, meeting in a game seven. That’s nice. This one has everything. Uh, by the way, Larry Bird and the Celtics won the championship that year. Even with a really a massive disparity in terms of game seven experience, we have the Nuggets, 12 guys who have played in winner go home situations, only three for OKC. Tim, what are the Thunder saying about this challenge today? Take a look at these numbers. Yeah, and you know, they understand obviously what’s at stake today. They understand the experience disparity, but that’s not going to be what wins or loses this game for Oklahoma City. And look, this is the first game seven for Chad Holman, for instance. But he said, “Hey, we know how much this game means, but we can’t go into the game thinking about that. We have to think about what matters to winning.” None of that stuff matters to winning. So, their focus is on the game plan. Their focus is on attention to detail. Their focus is not on the pressure of a game seven. Yeah. And their coach Mark Dagnold, he’s going to be coaching in his first game seven as the Thunder look to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2016. Russell Westbrook going back there. All sorts of storylines. Going to be super interesting. Tim, thank you. Panel, let’s bring in basketball analyst Chennai Agum with more on game seven. Ch. The Nuggets have been resilient all postseason, but how confident are you that Denver can win this thing if Gordon can’t go? How much do I trust Nico? I would trust Joic with my credit card, but I’m a little bit more skeptical about his teammates. I would probably like give them cash and wait for the change back. You know what I’m saying? Nicola Joic, the reason why I trust him is he has three MVPs plus a great track record of wins. you know, in their wins over the Thunder, averaging 30 plus points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, but he will need a game like that, which he’s fully capable of. We all know he can score, but it’ll probably come down to the assist factor. He needs his teammates to be clutch and make shots. We know he can find guys like Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and all those things, but he hasn’t reached 10 assists in a game since game five of the first round. The magic of Joic is that he’s able to be unguardable, and also he elevates his team. He will need all of that and then some to take down the Thunder. This is Jokic time. He’s one of two players all time with 25 points a game, 10 rebounds a game, and five assists a game when facing elimination. The other person, that guy, LeBron James. So, let’s talk about OKC. SGA has risen to the occasion since OKC went down 2-1. But his fellow all-star Jaylen Williams has been a bit inconsistent. What do you need to see collectively from this back court in game seven? I cannot wait for this because this has to be the MVP moment for Shay Gilis Alexander who is the presumptive award winner and he has been actually solid this postseason. He will need to show up and announce his arrival in grand fashion. He’s been the master of the mid-range, made the most mid-range shots with 34 field goals on 50% shooting so far in the playoffs. That’s where he has to take over. And as you mentioned, JDub, he needs to bounce back in a big way. coming off of his worst playoff performance game. Six points on three of uh three of 16 shooting I believe in game six. He needs to have a supporting gas. SGA, JD Dub, uh C Homegrren, Isaiah Hartenstein, they’re bigs. They need to be aggressive. OKC, they have the star power. They have the number two option. They have the home court. They have the youth. They’re the youngest team in basketball. They got them fresh legs. And most importantly, they have the best defense in the NBA. It’s time for all of the A B CDE E all of it. All of the above to show up for OKC. SGA, by the way, three and two in his career when facing elimination, averaging just 18 points, three rebounds, five assists in those games. Chana Agum, always a pleasure. Give me the heat. Come on. The city is feeling