Sometimes, you don’t fully appreciate what you’re watching at Ball Arena until you’re in the middle of a big moment.
On Wednesday night, in the final game before the All-Star break, Jamal Murray had a career high 55 points in a 132-121 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. There were a lot of players out on both sides, and being the final game before a long break, things can get weird. The Blazers didn’t play a sound defensive scheme while trying to junk up the game and force Nikola Jokic to adapt. In the process, they let Murray have some easy shots to get his night started.
Then, the onslaught just never stopped.
Murray hit three pointers, layups, floaters, fadeaways, and much more. Everything in Murray’s arsenal was working last night. So much so that he set a new career high. For a player of Murray’s caliber who’s had 50 points in a game before, that’s not nothing. 73 players in NBA history have scored 55+ in a game, and only 28 players in NBA history have done it more than once. Murray’s joining the first list, and who knows? There’s still plenty of time for him to join the second list during the rest of his career.
“In the first quarter you could see it, he was scoring at a high clip,” Michael Malone shared postgame. “He was just in a great rhythm, shot looked good. We always talk about it, he was ultra aggressive tonight and I’m glad he was because it was one of those games where you, as a coach you’re watching one of your players have that type of game and you’re just so proud of him and happy for him. He’s been playing at a high level for us and tonight was his best game ever from a numbers standpoint.”
The game before against the Blazers on Monday, Murray was ejected following an interaction with Blazers guard Dalano Banton where both were chatting and talking trash. The ejection made Murray mad, and he certainly looked to make a statement last night vs Banton and the Blazers.
“They were talking a little trash to him last game and they shouldn’t have done that because they just made him mad,” Zeke Nnaji shared last night. “When he’s mad, there’s no one in the world that can stop him. That was special to watch.”
For Murray, it simply felt good to back up the chatter.
“It’s just all competitive spirit. I’ve got nothing against Banton. He’s from 40 minutes from where I grew up, but obviously I came ready to play.”
Murray has spent a lot of time working his way back to being the version of himself that he’s proud of. As Malone shared to local media postgame, there’s no tougher critic on Murray than Murray himself. Following last year’s playoffs, the Olympics for Team Canada, and entering this season, Murray brought a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
When the season started, Murray still didn’t look like his old self though, so much so that there were concerns about his long term health and prospects. Through December 7th of this year in 17 total games, Murray was averaging a pedestrian 17.8 points per game, shooting 42.0% from the field and 33.3% from three. Even his free throw percentage of 80.6% was underwhelming by his standards.
Since December 7th (the loss to the Washington Wizards) Murray has been on a tear. In 31 games, nearly double the sample size, Murray is averaging 22.8 points per game while shooting 49.5% from the field, 39.8% from three, and 91.5% from the free throw line. Combine those numbers with 6.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game on a team with a 22-9 record in those 31 games, and those look strikingly like All-Star caliber numbers for the veteran point guard.
But more than the numbers themselves is simply how Murray looks and carries himself on the court. The swagger is back. The confidence and aggression to do what is necessary. It wasn’t like Murray didn’t have confidence before, but now, by putting himself in position to succeed with the hard work he’s produced in the weight room and off the court, it has helped him improve on the court. The belief is there again, and with it comes the audaciousness and willingness to be a star next to Nikola Jokic.
That last part is more difficult for people to understand. Shouldn’t it be easy to play with Nikola Jokic? Yes and no. Jokic makes the game extremely easy for others. He’s adaptive and molds his game to the skill set of whoever he’s interacting with on the court. When that’s Murray, he sets more screens, draws double teams in the post, and sometimes hunts for shot attempts for Murray in transition and on kickouts.
The difficult part for Murray is not being too reliant on what Jokic provides. The bigger of a threat Murray is with the ball in his hands, the less attention an opposing team can pay Jokic. When Murray does the hard stuff and taking hard shots, it frees up Jokic on the short roll, duck-ins to the post, and more. Most everything Murray does is through the lens of making the game easier for Jokic to operate. That can get tedious, but Murray does understand his place in this and has been extremely willing to buy in there.
What’s great to see about the last few weeks especially is the reemergence of the Jokic-Murray two-man game. The most deadly action in basketball for the vast majority of the last half decade, the Nuggets had gone away from that for long periods of time this year, adding more opportunities for Michael Porter Jr., playmaking for Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun dribble handoffs, even Russell Westbrook pick and rolls with Jokic. At times, Murray has taken a backseat. Early in the season, it was the right thing to do. Now, with Murray playing some of his best basketball heading into the All-Star break, it will be interesting to see how much the Nuggets rely on the two-man game down the stretch of the season.
Murray’s unlikely to score 55 points again this year, but 30+ isn’t out of the question anymore. It took until Game 30 of the NBA season on December 28th for Murray to score 30 points for the first time. Since then, he scored 45 points two weeks later in Dallas, had 30 three days later in Miami, had back-to-back 30-point games a couple weeks after that, then had 30 against the Phoenix Suns a few days ago. Now add a double nickel to the equation, and it sure looks like the scoring explosiveness is back for Murray in a big way.
Despite all of the concerns about Murray’s health and skill set early in the season, I maintained that the best way forward for Denver was to get Murray back on track. He has obliged in full over these past two months, playing some of the best, most consistent basketball of his career. In these 31 games, Murray has scored 20+ a total of 19 times, providing needed support for Jokic and the Nuggets night in and night out.
Will it translate to playoff success is still the ever-important question, and that will be answered in due time. When Murray is playing with this level of scoring explosiveness and consistency, it’s reminiscent of 2023 when he started slow but truly shined during the middle of the season. That year, and all the other playoff years before that, Murray was special in the playoffs. Perhaps last year was more about the injuries he sustained and less about who he is as a playoff performer.
For now, it’s better to simply focus on what’s plain as day in front of us:
Jamal Murray is back.