Nuggets’ Jamal Murray relishes playoff return in rout of Timberwolves

Back on the postseason stage for the first time in more than 900 days, Jamal Murray’s juicy postgame snack was a long time coming.

Less than 30 minutes after he and the Nuggets ran the Timberwolves off the floor in Game 1, bludgeoning the visiting No. 8 seed, 109-80, Murray sat at his locker room stall devouring oranges by the slice.

Once he’d polished off his replenishments, Murray pulled another move out of his bag. He joked to a nearby staffer he’d see him later, knowing full well he still had his postgame media obligations to fulfill.

It was quintessential Murray: confident and brash.

Murray poured in a game-high 24 points on Sunday, which felt like a significant accomplishment after making just three baskets in the first half. But his second half – 15 points, with three 3-pointers, four rebounds and four assists – looked much more like the last time he saw the postseason, when he took the league by storm and set the Bubble on fire. In addition to the scoring, Murray added eight assists and eight rebounds, burnishing the idea that he’s more than just a scorer.

The helpers, with only one turnover, flashed his playmaking; the boards, his physicality.

Murray admitted he was pressing to start the game. He acknowledged the adrenaline coursing through him, conceding there were jitters dancing around in his stomach at the start. He said the last time he was that excited was at the beginning of this season, when he first returned from his ACL tear.

“I got tired quick, lemme tell you that,” he joked from the postgame podium he intended to speak at all along.

As Murray fought to find his rhythm, he even apologized to coach Michael Malone, but the veteran head coach didn’t want to hear it.

“’Don’t say my bad,” Malone told him. “Just keep playing. Play your game.’”

He heard the same from teammates, too.

In the first half, Murray played in traffic, forced shots and didn’t let the game come to him. Perhaps intent on reminding everyone what he’d once done, Murray pressed. Searching, he looked to his dad in the stands for confidence.

“I had support all around,” he said.

When he finally buried his first 3-pointer, he shrugged his hands in relief. The second half was more of the same until sparkplug Christian Braun ignited a feud between himself and the Timberwolves.

When Braun refused to let Kyle Anderson get an extra shot off, prompting some jostling at halfcourt, Murray couldn’t help himself.

“Look at the scoreboard, baby!” he screamed to no one in particular.

Murray tends to thrive when games get physical and chippy. As both sides tried to diffuse the situation, he beckoned the crowd to roar.

He was stirring up his preferred environment – heated and tense.

Moments later, he canned a three. To start the fourth quarter, he buried two more. When he finished off a reverse layup through Karl-Anthony Towns, Murray ran back on defense smiling at the mismatch he’d exploited.

“I’m best when I’m feeling myself,” Murray said.

No one who’s watched his emotional, passionate career would contend any different.

By the time he finished a smooth off-hand layup in garbage time, the game was already over, yet Murray wasn’t done relishing the rout.

He ran back down court mimicking the finish to anyone who was watching. A man of the moment, he knew all eyes were on him.

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.

Source: Read Full Article