NBA playoffs are seeing close games become the norm. And there have been some heroic moments, too

Aaron Gordon went to the postgame interview room after his latest heroic moment for the Denver Nuggets, took a seat with his two nephews on his lap and waited for somebody to say something.

He finally broke the silence.

“Any questions?” he asked.

Seems about right that he would ask that, given that so far in these NBA playoffs Gordon has been one of the players with all the answers in the biggest moments — when games are on the line.

He is one of the contenders for the unofficial title of Mr. Game Winner of these playoffs, his case built around a no-time-left dunk — believed to be the first of its kind in postseason history — to beat the Los Angeles Clippers in Round 1, then a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.

“Did I know it was in? I knew it wasn't a miss," Gordon said of his latest game winner.

And Gordon isn't alone in being part of these down-to-the-wire moments.

Tyrese Haliburton — another Mr. Game Winner candidate — now has two such shots as well in these playoffs, the latest coming in the form of a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to beat top-seeded Cleveland 120-119 on Tuesday night for a 2-0 Pacers lead in that series. That one came after he had a layup with 1.4 seconds left in overtime of the Pacers’ series-clinching, frantic Game 5 rally in the final moments to oust Milwaukee.

“Obviously, had to get lucky,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Tuesday night after Haliburton’s latest heroics led his team's second successful comeback from seven points down and less than a minute left in a three-game span. “Tyrese hit another amazing shot to win the game. You don’t see this very often, let alone twice in one week. We’re very fortunate.”

He’s right. You don’t see this very often.

There are five players — Robert Horry in 2002, LeBron James in 2006 and 2018, Jamal Murray last year, and now Gordon and Haliburton this year — who have hit two go-ahead shots in the final 10 seconds of wins in the same postseason. That’s it. That’s the whole list.

“This is what I do,” Haliburton said in the on-court interview afterward, still out of breath.

Round 2 is just getting underway in these NBA playoffs and already there have been 15 games decided by three points or fewer, matching or exceeding the total from each of the last 10 playoff years. The New York Knicks have won five games so far in the playoffs, four of them by three points or fewer.

“We’re just going to keep fighting,” the Knicks' Mikal Bridges said after the Game 1 win at Boston on Monday night. “That’s who we are ... and we keep showing it.”

This is not normal: So far, 30% of games in this year's playoffs going into Tuesday have been decided by three points or fewer. It's happening about twice as often as it did last season and about three times as often as it did in other postseason runs over the last decade.

Of those 15 games so far decided by three points or fewer, five of them have had a go-ahead basket in the final 10 seconds. There's the two by Haliburton, the two by Gordon, and the other was New York’s Jalen Brunson hitting a 3-pointer to beat Detroit in Round 1.

Brunson was the NBA's top clutch player this season. Haliburton is an Olympic champion. Gordon was part of Denver's run to the NBA title two years ago. In the biggest moments, they know what is required.

“It’s not about putting the team on my back," Brunson said. "I have confidence in them. They have confidence in me. We're going to compete. We're going to find the best way to attack each possession. It may look like I get the credit ... but it's not just me.”

Brunson had a chance to win Game 1 at Boston with a last-second floater in regulation — “not clutch enough,” he mused when asked about it after the Knicks finished off the overtime win — but the Knicks found a way anyway.

New York was down by 20 in that game and won; Boston was 40-1 this season in games when it had a lead of 20 or more.

Denver was down by 14 at Oklahoma City and won; the Thunder are 64-2 this season in games in which they led by at least 12 points against anybody besides the Nuggets, but they're only 2-3 in such games against Denver.

The Nuggets now have three wins by three points or fewer so far in these playoffs.

“We make stupid mistakes,” Denver star Nikola Jokic, who had a historic 42-point, 22-rebound effort, told Altitude TV after the Game 1 win. “But we find a way.”

At this time of year, finding a way is the only thing that's required. Haliburton, Gordon and Brunson have proven that.

Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon shoots during the second half in Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) hugs his father John Haliburton following Game 5 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks, Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

President of the New York Knicks Leon Rose, left, hugs guard Jalen Brunson (11) as they leave the court following a Game 6 win in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Detroit Pistons, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Denver Nuggets' Jamal Murray (27) and Aaron Gordon, center right, celebrate after Gordon sunk a basket late in the second half that sealed the team's win in Game 1 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series against the the Oklahoma City Thunder Monday, May 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is kicking off a three-nation tour of Latin America with a visit to Uruguay, the region’s least Catholic and most secular country, three weeks after undergoing lung cancer surgery that had put the entire trip into question.

Leo is due to arrive in Montevideo after a 13-and-a-half hour flight from Rome. He has a packed three-day itinerary in Uruguay including a visit to a neighborhood plagued by gang violence, a Mass in Paysandú, some 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital, and another Mass in the city of Florida, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.

The Uruguay leg is the first stop on what will be the longest and farthest trip of his pontificate, all being undertaken as the 71-year-old pope continues his recovery. The trip will also bring him to neighboring Argentina and finally back home to Peru, where Leo served as a missionary priest and bishop for two decades.

"His stamina is fantastic. The way that he's singing is incredible. And you can only sing if your lungs are really strong," said Maria Montserrat Alvar, the Vatican's new communications chief. She noted that Leo has passed the 14-day convalescence period required by doctors after his Oct. 13 surgery and is eager to get on the road.

“His doctors are very confident and he'll have plenty of medical care on board should something happen, but we don't see that in his prognosis or even in the way that he's acting,” she said.

In Uruguay, which hasn’t had a papal visit since 1988, Leo is expected to try to remind the 3.5 million people of their strong Catholic heritage stemming from the times of Spanish colonial rule. He is likely to propose the faith anew as an answer to today’s challenges and problems.

Upon arrival, Leo will meet with President Yamandú Orsi, leader of the center-left alliance that assumed power in Uruguay in March 2025, and then deliver his welcome address to government officials and diplomats. He finishes the long day with a vespers service at the city's cathedral.

Leo will find in Uruguay a country unlike any other in Latin America, which is home to around 40% of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. Uruguay is considered the most secular country in the region, where only a fraction of people who identify as Catholic actually go to Mass regularly.

Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the second country in Latin America to decriminalize abortion, and the third country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage.

More recently, it became the first country in the region to approve assisted dying legislation over the strong opposition of the Catholic Church, evidence of Uruguay’s entrenched, church-state separation that prohibits any mention of God in oaths of office.

Leo is expected to recall the church's opposition to abortion and euthanasia as part of his broader argument about upholding human dignity in all phases of life.

Uruguayan church officials have marveled at the apparent enthusiasm the visit has provoked, with reports that tickets to Leo’s prayer vigil at Montevideo’s Centenario Stadium were snapped up after two days.

“It seems that the pope’s presence is shifting something here and is gradually breaking down this veil that has always sought to obscure and diminish the presence of the Catholic tradition that lies at the country’s foundation,” said Guzmán Carriquiry, the Uruguayan former head of the Vatican’s pontifical commission for Latin America.

“I believe this pope will stir up questions in the hearts of Uruguayans -- disturbing questions -- questions about meaning and, we hope, questions about faith,” he said.

Carriquiry said he expects Leo will seek to revive the Catholic roots of Uruguay, especially when he travels to Florida on Sunday to mark an important Catholic feast day.

The Nov. 8 feast commemorates the Virgin of the Thirty-three, a small wooden icon of the Virgin Mary that is intricately connected to Uruguay’s independence movement. According to tradition, 33 independence patriots acquired the Guaraní statue and had it with them when independence was declared from the Brazilian empire in Florida on Aug. 25, 1825.

“So the number 33 is an ecclesiastical symbol, a national symbol,” said Carriquiry, who was also Uruguay’s ambassador to the Holy See. “And so the pope will speak there about the Catholic tradition that lies at the origin of Uruguay—that stems from Uruguay and gave rise to Uruguay—in order to revive and renew the Catholic tradition in the hearts of Uruguayans.”

Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies and an expert in the Latin American church at Virginia Commonwealth University, said he wasn’t surprised that Leo’s visit had generated enthusiasm and that he will be welcomed warmly.

“But that’s not necessarily going to translate into folks in the pews,” he said. “If the overarching goal is trying to revitalize Catholicism in the most Catholic region on Earth, Uruguay is kind of a lost cause, and it has been for decades.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV appears at the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for the Angelus noon prayer on All Saints' Day, a feast celebrated across much of the Christian world, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV blesses a new born after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV celebrates a mass in memory of cardinals and bishops who died during the past year, in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A mototaxi pass drives past a banner of Pope Leo XIV at Pimentel beach in Chiclayo, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, ahead of his planned trip to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru from November 6 to 17. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)