DENVER — A full boat of 19,683 men at the Ball Arena rose to their feet in unison Wednesday night. Eleven seconds remained in a 122-113 Game 2 win for the Denver Nuggets over the Minnesota Timberwolves. On his way back to the Nuggets bench, Jamal Murray bumped into his head coach, Michael Malone. That wasn’t enough for Malone. He grabbed Murray and hugged him. His teammates on the bench followed one after the other, with the kind of love reserved for special moments.
The Nuggets lead Minnesota 2-0 in a Western Conference first-round series. But this win was different. And not so much the win as Murray’s performance. That night, Murray exited Game 2 as the owner of a 40-point feat of a feat that only took him 22 shots from the field to make the 40. Emotions for Murray and his teammates stemmed from the road he had traveled at that moment. With a cruciate ligament tear and countless painful nights rehabilitating a left knee, he didn’t know when he would get better.
A standing ovation came from a sold-out crowd, raising questions about whether Murray could be the same playoff performer he was before the injury. You know, the one who hit multiple 50-point games in the 2020 bubble postseason to lead the Nuggets to a Western Conference Finals appearance. It was a night of affirmation that spoke louder than any game in a regular season.
The Murray that Nuggets fans came to know and love is now officially back.
“It means a lot, man,” Murray said. “It’s a lot of fun to be in the zone and feel an energy that I haven’t felt in a long time. I just wanted to play this game all the way through, play my game. I’m glad we won.”
The way back for Murray was difficult. Having missed the last two postseasons for the Nuggets, his absence resulted in early playoff exits for Denver. He’s been good this year, back in his first full season, averaging 20 points a game in 65 regular-season appearances. But Murray was one of the better postseason players in the NBA before the injury. Can he reach that level again?
Game 2 served to answer that answer with a resounding yes. Murray made 6 out of 10 3-point attempts. Whenever the Nuggets needed a big shot, Murray was there to deliver. He walked 13 of 22 from the field and dished out five assists. More importantly, on a night where the Timberwolves were as much as 21 points down, then rebounded by 40 points in the third quarter and actually took the lead, the top-seeded Nuggets needed a savior and Murray was there to provide one .
“Jamal was a warrior tonight,” Malone said. “It’s almost like he left a piece of himself out there on the ground tonight. I played it for 39 minutes. He was impressive across the board and it was just great to have him back out there playing well. We’ll probably have to carry him to the plane tomorrow. We knew we would eventually see the aggressive Minnesota team. I told my team that we’ve played eight quarters this series and seven of those quarters have been great. We had a bad quarter, but it was good that we found a way to respond in the fourth quarter.”
Murray’s game Wednesday night bodes well for the Nuggets as a whole.
Denver knows what it’s going to get from its superstar Nikola Jokić every night. Some nights, Jokić will fly into the stratosphere in terms of scoring and overall shotmaking. But most nights he’ll score about 25 points, grab a few rebounds and be one of the league’s elite playmakers.
The Nuggets believe they have an NBA title cap. And they can be right. But they won’t be right unless someone rides with Jokić. And this is where Murray comes in. For his career, he’s averaging 27 points a night in the postseason. Once the curtain rises on the playoffs, Murray is a whirling dervish of a point guard, one who consistently touches the color while dribbling, one who consistently hits big shots.
“Nikola is a great player,” Malone said. “But you can’t do it alone. We need help in this business. We all know and understand what Jamal is capable of as a player. More importantly, this is a team. We win together and we lose together.”
On a night when Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards put on a show of his own – 41 points on a mix of hard shots from the perimeter and explosive shots to the basket – the Nuggets needed someone who could match the performance Edwards consistently in the second half.
More than Murray’s accomplishment was his ability to dissect anything the Wolves defensively threw at him and make them pay for it. Minnesota dropped coverage with Rudy Gobert as the anchor for much of the night. Murray simply took a dribble handoff from Jokić or ran a pick and roll, patiently getting in the paint and scoring. As the Timberwolves started switching everything on the rim, Murray cooked up the switch with a variety of moves from the dribbling that took him anywhere he wanted on the floor.
Murray’s game-ending ability eventually saw him chase Minnesota point guard Mike Conley on switches and attack him one-on-one with the game’s key possessions on balance.
No matter what Wolves did defensively, Murray had an answer. Because of that, and because Michael Porter Jr. scored 13 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets could make any play they needed down the stretch. And that led to a win, a 2-0 lead and a commanding lead in the series.
“I think Jamal is playing better now than in the bubble,” said Jokic. “Yes, he scored more points in the bubble but his control of the game is better. He’s playing at a much higher level and we need that to be successful.”
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(Photo by Jamal Murray and Mike Conley: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)