Nuggets get an NBA Finals gem from difference-maker Jamal Murray

DENVER (AP) —The highlight of Game 1 for Jamal Murray came when he dribbled intothe paint, put all his weight on his surgically repaired left knee,made a full clockwise turn, then faded away and swished a mid-rangejumper.

His mostimportant contribution to Denver’s first win in the franchise’sfirst appearance in the NBA Finals — well, take your pick.

Murray’s26-point, 10-assist night inthe104-93 win over Miamion Thursday almost seemed incidentalfor a team that features a player averaging a triple-double inthese playoffs in Nikola Jokic, a one-of-a-kind big man who has theskills to make every player on the roster a threat.

And yet,anybody following the Nuggets for a while knows it has beenMurray’s return to full health — and his return to the playoffs forthe first time in three seasons — that has been a catalyst in therun they’re on.

“He’s athree-level scorer. He can shoot the 3. He can pull up and get tothe rim,” said Heat guard Haywood Highsmith, describing thegrueling challenge of trying to slow Murray. “He’s a crafty player,has a good handle. He’s in good condition.”

All thosepoints and assists aside, it’s arguable Murray’s most importantcontribution in this game came during a 106-second stretch afterMiami had cut a 24-point deficit to 10. It’s somewhat remarkable —and oh-so typical of the impact the seventh-year guard out ofKentucky can have on a game — that during those 106 seconds, Murraydidn’t record a single stat.

It started atthe 9:02 mark of the fourth quarter when he made a snap throw toJokic, which loosened the Heat defense and allowed Jokic to findJeff Green for an uncontested layup.

A few emptypossessions later, Murray found a sliver of open space in themiddle to hit Jokic, who missed the easy layup but got fouled andmade both free throws.

Thepossession after that, Murray scooped up the ball after Bruce Brownpicked Highsmith’s pocket. Murray wove down court, dribbled aroundhis back, through his legs, then flipped it to Michael Porter Jr.who, with the court now wide open, found Jokic for a layup.

Denver’s leadwas back to 16.

“Loved hispace tonight, just the pace that he played all night long,” Nuggetsforward Aaron Gordon said. “The tempo that he played at,controlling the game and controlling the flow of the game wasgreat.”

For therecord, Murray’s turnaround fadeaway over Highsmith — the jumper ofthe night — came with 6:26 left to re-raise the Denver lead to 16and all but put to rest any doubt about the outcome.

It alsoserved as yet another reminder that if they Heat are going to haveany chance of containing the Nuggets over the rest of this series,they’ll have to account for the player who has never made anAll-Star game and never received an MVP vote but is every bit askey to Denver’s success as the player who has, Jokic.

“He’s adynamic scorer. He poses threats in different ways and he’srelentless,” said Miami guard Gabe Vincent. “It will be a talltask, and we’ll continue to work at it.”

Murray wentdown in a game at Golden State and tore up his knee late in the2020-21 season, an injury thatforcedhim to missthe ’21 playoffs and all of last year. Evenwith Jokic winning the MVP in both of those seasons, the Nuggetsgot swept out of the ’21 conference semifinals by the Sunsandbeatenin five by the Warriorsin the first round in ’22.

By then, thephrase “Bubble Murray” — an homage to his breakthrough during the2020 playoffs in the COVID bubble in Orlando — was becomingpopular. He has grown tired of that label, and of the question ofwhether “Bubble Murray” would ever show up again once he returnedto full health.

Answer:Yes.

He hasaveraged 27.6 points and 6.2 assists over 16 playoff games thisyear, surpassing his regular-season numbers by 7.6 and 1.4.Counting 2019 and 2020, Murray has increased his scoring by 33% andhis assists by 13% in the postseason. He is, in short, building areputation as one of those special players who come up biggest whenthe lights are brightest.

True to form,Murray was more than happy to spread the credit around after theNuggets made it 1-0 as a franchise in the NBA Finals.

“It’s hard toguard everybody, instead of just one or two guys,” Murray said. “Ithink tonight was just a great example of how it could be anybody’snight and anybody’s quarter, maybe not your quarter. That’s justNuggets basketball.”