David Adelman jokingly chalked it up to a strategy move, but it was a rare sight seeing Aaron Gordon on the bench for as long as he was on Saturday afternoon.

The Nuggets’ versatile, do-it-all forward matched the Timberwolves’ aggressiveness and physicality from the jump, but it cost him some precious time on the court after he picked up his third foul near the end of the opening quarter.

Denver was forced to play the entire second quarter without its best defender, but not having Gordon out there may have been the spark the rest of the group needed to up its defensive effort in the eventual 116-105 Game 1 win over Minnesota at Ball Arena.

“I think that was a good thing for us, if that makes any sense,” Nikola Jokic said. “Just being aggressive, I always say, ‘A foul is a friend to you.’ It’s not something bad. Maybe he brought some other people’s energy to play more aggressive. We know that he can come back and have impactful moments in the game, like he’s (been) doing his whole career here.”

That’s exactly what Gordon did when the second half started with the game tied at 62 apiece.

After scoring just five points — all at the free-throw line — and grabbing as many rebounds as he had fouls in just over 10 minutes of action, Gordon didn’t let his foul trouble affect his mindset.

He grabbed a game-high four offensive rebounds and led a second-half defensive effort that saw the Wolves score 43 points in the final 24 minutes, with Gordon’s main matchup, Julius Randle, scoring 16 points on 16 shots in the game.

“Yeah, he came out in the third quarter and gave us a huge boost,” Cam Johnson said.

It’s the boost the Nuggets have known they would need in the postseason.

Denver’s regular-season defense was in the bottom third of the league for a second straight year and it has been viewed as the biggest potential hindrance to a championship run. It’s no secret that Gordon at his best changes who the Nuggets are on that end of the floor.

“We know what this is. When Aaron plays, we’re a different team,” Adelman said. “It’s just the bottom line. It’s not the stats, it’s the feel. We feel bigger because we are. His ballhandling, the way he brings the ball up against pressure and then taking on the physicality of what this all is. Whatever you need that night, he brings it. Tonight it was attitude, physicality. He’ll bring whatever you need in Game 2.”

The Nuggets don’t want it to be the norm going forward — this was just the third playoff game in which Gordon played under 30 minutes in the last three years and the previous two were in blowout losses — but this rarity also allowed Adelman to learn a bit about some of his key bench players that will all be asked to contribute in the postseason.

Back from injury, Spencer Jones played a valuable nine minutes and provided size that can be lacking on the second unit. Bruce Brown’s reintroduction to playoff basketball was a success, as he played over 21 minutes and was a positive presence. The same goes for Tim Hardaway Jr., who was plus-9 in his 24 minutes. 

That bench trio combined for 20 points, but that’s all right if they continue to bring the same defensive intensity they did in the series-opening win.

“We were all just proud,” Jones said. “The shots weren’t falling a little bit in the first half and the defensive intensity stayed (the same) the whole time. We kept them to under 110 or something like that, which is (what) we’ve been crying about the whole season. To be able to do it in the first game of the playoffs and show, look, this is the intensity we can play and play at consistently, it was a good showing for us.”

It helps that Gordon was able to come back in and pick up where that group left off in the second half, too.

“That’s why I rested him in the first half,” a sarcastic Adelman said with a smile.