After signing a most contract through the offseason, Jamal Murray had a tough begin to the Denver Nuggets’ 2024-2025 NBA season. The 2023 NBA champions have been relying on Murray as a worthy operating mate to reigning MVP Nikola Jokic through the top of his championship-winning window.
For about two months, this was not the case.
A few of Murray’s struggles are associated to his well being: he just lately revealed that he coping with plantar fasciitis earlier this season. A few of it in all probability has to do with a insecurity, which, duh. It has been a very long time since we have seen a really electrical Murray, i.e. the identical participant who averaged 26.7 factors, 7.1 assists and 5.7 rebounds on capturing splits of 47-40-92 en path to Denver’s first championship in 2023. It would not be a shock to study that a few of Murray’s current points have been going to his head.
On Monday, with the Nuggets on the point of a heartbreaking highway loss to the Sacramento Kings, a resurgent Murray lastly saved his crew within the clutch.
Within the fourth quarter, after the Nuggets blew a 23-point lead, Murray had ice in his veins. He scored 15 factors on 5 of seven capturing (3 of three from 3-point land) and was a +14 within the ultimate stanza. And whereas operating Denver’s patented two-man play with Jokic – the identical lethal two-man play that gained the franchise its 2023 championship – Murray unleashed a bone-chilling game-winning shot to cap a chaotic end:
Murray taking part in like this when the opposite Nuggets failed in a troublesome highway surroundings speaks volumes. It is the most effective signal that Denver’s ambitions for a second title in three NBA seasons are nonetheless extraordinarily alive. If Murray performs like this as a worthy foil to Jokic, the Nuggets shall be greater than able to beating another NBA title heavyweight. His particular person success is so necessary to them.
At the moment, the Nuggets have the sixth-best odds at +1400 to win this 12 months’s NBA title with oddsmakers at BetMGM. In the event you ask me, that is nice worth for a crew that employs the three-time MVP and finest participant within the NBA and a Murray who can nonetheless end like he did in opposition to the Kings:
As of this writing, the Nuggets at the moment are 14-10, the identical file that they had throughout their 2023 championship season. On the time, a wrestle Jamal Murray hits a game-winning shot on the highway in Portland for a Nuggets crew that was on the cusp of elite title contender standing. It was a watershed second for this iteration of Denver. That is when these Nuggets began to really consider and notice the greatness they have been able to.
Two years later, do not be shocked to see an identical factor occur for the Nuggets and a struggling Jamal Murray, who hit a game-winning shot on the highway in Sacramento.
This text was initially printed on For The Win: Jamal Murray lastly saves the Nuggets within the clutch is an effective signal for his or her title hopes
