“A player on a streak has to respect the streak… You know why? Because they don’t happen very often… If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting laid or because you’re not getting laid or because you’re wearing women’s underwear, then you are!”
—Crash Davis Bull Durham

Teams have to respect a streak, too.

The Denver Nuggets fell behind 0-2 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in their second-round series, dropping those first two games at home. The night before Game 3, veteran center DeAndre Jordan organized a team dinner at a local steakhouse in Minneapolis. The entire team attended, except for Aaron Gordon, something Sam Amick explained at The Athletic.

The team dinner worked — the players came out of the night feeling relaxed, and not feeling the must-win pressure. Then they went out and dominated Game 3 behind Nikola Jokic, winning by 27. Then the Nuggets won Game 4. Denver was playing like a champion again.

Players have to respect the streak, so when there was a team dinner at the same steakhouse after Game 4 — with the series tied 2-2 — Gordon was not invited. The Nuggets went on to win Game 5 at home. Now they are back in Minneapolis for Game 6 and Gordon had to fly separately and was not at the team dinner last night.

Gordon is good with all this — you don’t mess with a streak, and he knows it.

Nuggets players have funny reason for snubbing Aaron Gordon from team dinner

Denver Nuggets team dinners will proceed without Aaron Gordon for the foreseeable future, with good reason on the team’s part.

The Nuggets have been having players-only team dinners since falling behind 2-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semifinals. There is one twist, however: Gordon was absent from a team dinner at a Minneapolis steakhouse last Thursday, organized in a bid to lift team spirits after their dreadful start to the series. The Nuggets have not lost since, and superstition has kicked in. As long as the Nuggets keep winning, Gordon cannot come to dinner.

“Yeah — not you though,” veteran DeAndre Jordan told Gordon when asked about the next dinner, via Sam Amick of The Athletic. “We’ll see you next round (of the playoffs). Sorry, dawg. We’ll bring you some takeout though.”

To be clear, Gordon is fine with this, and laughed off the snub. He has committed to the bit as long as Denver keeps winning.

The Nuggets were blown off their own home court in the first two games by Minnesota, and many believed they were headed for a shockingly quick exit. They have responded with three straight wins, with Nikola Jokic completely taking over the series for Denver. They can finish off the Timberwolves with a win in Minnesota in Game 6 on Thursday night.

The Nuggets tried a lot of things to turn the series around. Perhaps the key all along was simply to have dinner without Gordon.