Maybe, but it wasnt fast enough to keep up with Jouki Boy, which on other hand isnt as fast as Susanoo arrow.
actually,gaara's sand clone did that,and tanked the explosion too
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and then here,the face of the clone is still blackened somewhat,showing this is the one that took the explosion,which makes sense,seeing as if gaara was the one,his sand armour would be cracked,and he would not have been able to fully control his defence,bcos his auto shield would protect him whether he wanted it to or not,so when the mizukage said that gaara used the sand to protect the division and attack him while leaving himself wide open,i was confused,and when there was no sand armour,i was even more confused. Here it is dissected
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here,mizukage claims he suspected that gaara was in the ground,and his clone was predictable as he had already seen the weaker sand moves.
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and then the real gaara shows up,and joki boy is caught in one attack,
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.
So either gaara purposely held back,or that was a clone,bcos once he was ready,he got it in one move.