Memo to the Phoenix Suns: If you flap your gums at Jamal Murray, your game better back it up.
“We had a slow start,” the Nuggets point guard recalled with a smile late Tuesday after almost single-handedly drop-kicking Minnesota’s mentally soft Timberwolves from the NBA Playoffs with a 35-point night. “And once (Minnesota) started talking, they woke us up. And that was it.”
Soon as the T-Pups started yapping, Murray donned his postseason Superman cape and floated above the cringe. He sailed. He feinted. He faded. He soared.
Denver’s playoff hero even opened in the second half by crashing the paint and elevating with his back to the rim, then throwing the ball overhead and blind, circus-style, at the hoop.
Naturally, he swished it.
“I mean, I do that sometimes,” Murray laughed as his Nuggets advanced into the second round in five games, where starting Saturday they’ll meet fourth-seeded Phoenix, the pundits’ pick to win the Western Conference. “So it was nice. I haven’t seen it yet, but it was nice.”
Nice? It was sublime.
“(The trash talk is) just playoff basketball to everybody,” Murray said. “But you know, (it) definitely got me rolling.”
The Blue Arrow was made for this stage. Bubble Murray is officially Playoff Murray, now and forever. In his last 24 postseason appearances, 19 in 2020 and five in ’23, the cold-blooded Canadian has scored at least 24 points in 13 of them. Denver is 10-3 (.769) in those 13 games, including a sometimes-uncomfortable 112-109 victory in Game 5.
“I think he just lives for big moments, never afraid,” offered coach Michael Malone, who became the franchise’s all-time leader in postseason wins (25). “And we needed him to have that type of a game (Tuesday).”
With 3:34 left in a four-point game, No. 27 had accounted for five treys and 33 points. The other seven Nuggets had combined for seven and 67, respectively.
Much of Game 5 felt like a slow walk through Bizarro World. The T-Pups, down 3-1, managed to split the difference between desperate and loose. Denver, conversely, too often seemed to alternate between uptight and upstaged. (see Edwards, Anthony.)
Nikola Jokic, Mr. Dependable, played in a funk, missing on 17 of his first 23 shots and eight of his first 10, en route to one of the least sexy triple-doubles (28 points, 17 board, 12 assists) of a Hall-of-Fame career. Michael Porter Jr. didn’t score until there was 10:05 left in the tilt.
In the final two minutes, the T-Pups doubled and trapped Murray whenever they could, daring anyone else — literally anyone — to put this game, and this series, to bed.
“My dad always told me, ‘If they double you, then you’re doing something right,’” Murray reflected after the game. “So (other) guys are ready. (MPJ) is ready to shoot. KCP (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope), same thing. AG (Aaron Gordon) down the stretch — guys know how to counter, how to react.”
It’ll take those guys kicking it up a notch to throw shade at the Suns, who come to town this weekend having disposed of the Clippers in five games. Phoenix’s cheat code, Kevin Durant, averaged 28.4 points and 7.6 rebounds vs. the Clips, while Devin Booker averaged a Murray-esque 37.2 points and 6.4 assists. The short-handed Wolves pushed the Nuggets in every game but the opener. If there’s another gear for Joker & The Gang, the time to shift is now.
“I don’t know,” Jokic said. Hopefully, (we can play) a lot better. I don’t know. We will see.”
The two-time NBA MVP converted a 3-point play that put the hosts up 109-104 as they hung on for dear life as The Edwards Show — the man scored his 29th point with 3.4 seconds left on the clock, clawing the scrappy Wolves to within two — kept swinging to the bitter end.
“I don’t care — 8 seed, 1 seed, all that other (expletive),” Malone said. “To a win a series in the playoffs is hard. So I’m really proud of our guys.”
The Nuggets had no problem finishing mercurial Minnesota, whether it was a position of leading or trailing late? Starting, though? Starting was another matter entirely.
A close-‘em-out, send-‘em-fishing tilt opened with about the worst — and softest — first quarter imaginable for the Ball Arena faithful. Minnesota drained 13 of its first 22 shots while outscoring the Nuggets in the paint, 20-8, over the game’s first 12 minutes.
The Wolves felt the Nuggs at the start, all right. Only they felt like a gentle summer breeze.
“We do a great job of fighting from behind,” Murray reflected, “but we don’t want to be in that position in the playoffs.”
Not in Phoenix, where talk is cheap. The Suns averaged 37 points per third quarter against Los Angeles. They outscored the Clips during that stanza by an average of nearly 10 points per game. Give Durant and Booker an inch, they’ll bury you by a country mile.
“He was our best player in the series,” Jokic said of Murray.
Amen, brother. But from here on out, he sure as heck can’t do it alone.
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