He drained a 12-foot jumper in the key after curling around a Mason Plumlee screen and catching a feed from Monte Morris. “If you miss them, so what? But continue to shoot it, and shoot with confidence. “The key was just staying with it and continuing to take shots,” said Nuggets veteran Paul Millsap, who dropped 20 points and seven rebounds in the victory. The Nuggets knew they weren’t going to get one of those magical fourth quarters from Murray - and, let’s face it, Denver had had to have one - if the point guard didn’t at least try to pull a rabbit out of his hat. Murray didn’t even attempt a 3-pointer during the first three quarters Tuesday, and Denver’s offense was once again plummeting right along with him. Derrick White, the point guard the Nuggets passed on in the first round of the 2017 draft, was getting the best of his counterpart for the second straight game. He was forcing looks into coverage, and he stumbled through pick and rolls, cautious to fire the jumper that had betrayed him in Game 1. Murray was on the way to registering one of the worst performances of his career in Game 2. What made Tuesday’s audacious flame-throwing dance so different - aside from the stage upon which it occurred - was its origin story. He scored 46 points against the Suns in late December and then, two games later, scored 34 of his 36 points in the second half of a victory over the Kings. He dropped 48 points against Boston in November, irking the Celtics when he took a shot at 50 with the game in hand. The Nuggets are no stranger to Murray’s scoring binges. That’s always been a dream of mine to accomplish that. “I just looked at the crowd, and I just took it all in, everybody waving the towels,” said Murray, who wore a T-shirt at the podium with his face next to Jokic’s mug in an ode to the video game “NBA Jam.” “I always dreamed of playing in a playoff game when it was a whiteout. In a Pepsi Center hallway afterward, Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly could only shake his head at what he had just seen from the player he drafted No. He made his first eight shots of the period, including back-to-back 3-pointers that all but put the game out of reach.
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He scored 21 fourth-quarter points to propel Denver to a 114-105 victory that tied the series at one game apiece, with Game 3 set for Thursday night in San Antonio. What Murray did next will quickly be filed into the annals of Nuggets playoff history, somewhere near the front. Every shot right now is like the end of the world. You’re putting too much pressure on yourself. “I just grabbed him and said, ‘Listen, take a breath. “He was so frustrated at halftime at not making shots, shots he’s made his whole career,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. Murray, the team’s second-leading scorer, had only two points. Make no mistake, Denver was stumbling toward that fate, trailing 78-59 with 4 1/2 minutes to go in the third quarter. Only four teams in NBA history did that and went on to win a seven-game series. Had Denver lost it would have faced an 0-2 deficit after dropping both games at home. The Nuggets seemed out of juice Tuesday night, teetering on the edge for much of their pivotal Game 2 against the Spurs. “I just grabbed a pretzel,” Murray said, “and it was really dry.”
Jamal Murray couldn’t even get the in-game snack right.Īs if enough hadn’t gone wrong for Denver’s 22-year-old point guard in this first-round Western Conference series, from the missed potential game-winner in his playoff debut to a dismal first half in Game 2, now he had snatched a treat from a courtside fan after trying to save a loose ball, only to lament the decision.