DENVER (AP) — The highlight of Game 1 came for Jamal Murray when he dribbled to the middle, planted his surgically repaired left knee in the paint, made a full clockwise turn, then faded wide and took a midrange jumper.
His most important contribution to Denver’s first win in the franchise’s first appearance in the NBA Finals – well, take your pick.
Murray’s 26-point, 10-assist night 104-93 win over Miami Thursday seemed almost accidental for a team that boasts a player who averages three-fold in this playoff in Nikola Jokic, who has the skills to make every player on the roster a threat.
However, anyone who has followed the Nuggets for a while knows that Murray’s return to full health—and his return to the playoffs for the first time in three seasons—was a catalyst for the run they’re in.
“He’s a three-level scorer,” said heat guard Haywood Highsmith, describing the challenge of slowing Murray down. “He’s a cunning player with a good handle. He’s in good shape.”
All those points and assists aside, Murray’s most significant contribution to the game came during a 106-second stretch after Miami had cut their 24-point deficit to 10. It’s pretty remarkable — and pretty typical for a seventh-year guard. Out of Kentucky – During those game-changing 106 seconds, Murray never recorded a count.
He started at 9:02 of the fourth quarter when he made a brisk throw to Jokic, which eased the Heat defense and allowed Jokic to find Jeff Green for an uncontested layup.
A few empty possessions later, Murray found a small piece of open space up the middle to bump into Jokic, who easily missed a layup but was fouled and made both free throws.
Then, Murray had the ball after Bruce Brown picked off Jeb Highsmith. Murray spun the pitch, dribbled around his back, through his legs, then turned it over to Michael Porter Jr. who, with the court now wide open, found Jokic to make a layup.
Denver’s lead returned to 16.
“I loved his pace tonight, just the speed he played all night,” said Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon. “The tempo with which he played, the control and control over the flow of the game was fantastic.”
For the score, Murray’s fading changeup on Highsmith—the jump of the night—came with 3:27 left, bringing Denver’s lead to 14 after another small Heat offense and ending any doubt about the outcome.
It also served as another reminder that if the Heat is to have any chance of containing the Nuggets over the rest of this series, they’ll have to count the player who never made the All-Star Game and never received an MVP vote but every bit as key to Denver’s success as the player who has, Jokic .
“He’s a dynamic scorer. He’s a relentless threat,” said Miami goalkeeper Gabe Vincent. “It’s going to be a tough job and we’ll keep working on it.”
Murray fell in a game at Golden State and tore his knee late in the 2020-21 season, an injury that forced him to miss the 21 playoffs and all of last year. Even with Jokic winning the MVP title both seasons, the Nuggets were knocked out of the ’21 Conference Semifinals by the Suns and demolished by the Warriors in the first round in ’22.
By then, the phrase “Bubble Murray”—a tribute to his breakthrough during the 2020 playoffs in Orlando’s COVID bubble—had become commonplace. He’s tired of that label, and of the question of whether “Bubble Murray” will reappear once he’s back to full health.
Answer: Yes.
He’s averaged 27.6 points and 6.2 assists in 16 playoff games this year, topping the regular season numbers of 7.6 and 1.4. Computing 2019 and 2020, Murray has increased his scoring by 33% and his assists by 13% in the postseason. In short, he’s building a reputation as one of those power players who show up most when the lights are brightest.
Murray was right, and he was more than happy to post credit after the Nuggets made it 1-0 as a franchise in the NBA Finals.
“It’s hard to protect everyone, rather than just one or two people,” Murray said. “I think tonight was just a great example of how anyone’s night can be and anyone’s quarter, maybe not your quarter. This is just Nuggets basketball.”
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