Jamal Murray is back, and so are the Nuggets as title contenders

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When the Denver Nuggets decided this summer to give Jamal Murray a four-year, $208 million contract extension — the most money they could have paid him, over the maximum number of years, coming off the rockiest stretch of his eight-year career — plenty of people wondered why.

This is why:

It’s not just that Murray can go full Human Torch and turn in a performance like he did in Wednesday’s 132-121 win over the Trail Blazers: 55 points, a career-high (and a new all-time record for points scored by a Canadian, topping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 54-point outburst last month), on 20-for-36 shooting. It’s also how, and what that means for the complexion of a Nuggets team that’s been good enough to contend for championships in every season that Murray and Nikola Jokić have entered the postseason healthy.

Murray can cook in the two-man game, where he and Jokić have formed the NBA’s most picturesque and prolific partnership for nearly a decade, whether he’s on the ball to start or rocketing up from the corner to take the ball from his big man on a dribble handoff. Go under Jokić, or just be a split-second late in getting up to the level on your contest, and Murray will rise and fire; he’s one of 34 players this season to make at least 50 pull-up 3-pointers, with his shooting percentage on those tries nestled between perennial All-Stars Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving.

Press up and he can gain a step, maintain the edge by keeping the defender on his back as he surveys the space between the arc and the rim, and work his way into the sort of midrange look that he takes and makes more often than just about anyone in the NBA. Bottle him up, and he can use the pristine footwork he started honing decades ago back in Kitchener to pivot his way into cracking open a crevice, then use his touch to finish in among the tall trees.

And if you do manage to cover all your bases, taking away his initial reads and crowding his airspace … well, Murray will more than happily get off the ball and make himself a threat without it. (He, like Jokić, has developed a crackling chemistry with newcomer Russell Westbrook,…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jamal-murray-is-back-and-so-are-the-nuggets-as-title-contenders-170440032.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-02-13 17:04:00

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