Jamal Murray was responsible for the four most important shots of the Nuggets’ first-round series. He was also responsible for a behind-the-scenes conversation more consequential than any of those shots.
Peyton Watson encountered the aftermath by accident. “I think it was almost perfect timing,” he said in the locker room after Denver’s 108-106 Game 5 win to eliminate the Los Angeles Lakers. “But when I was back there getting ready for the game, just coming out of the training room, I saw Jamal right as he was leaving of Coach’s office. And I could tell — like, his eyes were even watering.”
Murray was leaving Michael Malone’s office after arguing his way onto the floor. In a pregame meeting that Malone described as “an emotional one,” Murray hashed out his injury status with the head coach and the team VP of sports medicine, Steve Short.
Needless to say, Murray emerged triumphant, if teary-eyed. The night ended with his second game-winning shot of the series, a leaning pull-up jumper with 3.6 seconds left to knock out his hero, LeBron James, for the second consecutive season.
Murray, who scored 32 to put the finishing touches on an uncharacteristically uneven series, approached Malone after it was over.
“I’m glad I played because I don’t know if we win if I don’t play tonight,” Malone recalled Murray telling him. The coach responded, “Well that’s the understatement of the year.”
Calf injuries can be notoriously dangerous due to the risk of damaging the Achilles tendon. So Murray’s left calf strain, which occurred in Game 4, was enough to keep all of Denver holding its collective breath Monday night when Murray was announced as available. He went through an abbreviated warm-up routine with a heavy wrap on his left leg.
“I came a little earlier today just to see if I was gonna be able to go. And I felt like I could,” Murray said. “And they just didn’t want me to risk it. They told me no. They told me no. And I didn’t say no. I just didn’t want to leave my teammates out there. We’ve been battling all season. Everybody’s hurt at some point. Everybody’s going through something. And I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I wasn’t about to play this game. … I’m just glad they listened to me. They listened to me listening to my body.”
His partner in crime, Nikola Jokic, offered levity: “He was faking it,” the two-time MVP said.
About those four shots: Before Murray’s Game 2 buzzer beater, he made a less memorable but equally difficult game-tying 20-footer with 30 seconds remaining. And in Game 5, before sticking the dagger back in Laker hearts, he cashed an open 3-pointer with 1:06 left and the Nuggets trailing by one.
When James evened the score with a pair of free throws, Malone abstained from calling a timeout — same as Game 2 exactly one week earlier in the same building. Instead, Murray walked the ball up slowly, glancing over at Malone on the sideline.
Maybe things got heated between them earlier. But it didn’t matter now, in a familiar situation. They coalesced without needing to stop the game for a commercial break. Then Murray and Jokic executed their two-man game with the usual synergy.
“It’s basically a timeout,” Murray said. “I think we had two timeouts and they didn’t have any. So when I looked at Coach, we called the play. I looked back. I asked him if we should go right away. I think it was only a two- or three-second difference, maybe four. And we knew what we were going to get to. We were going to get the last shot. That was the timeout right there. I’m an extension of him out there. So I was able to relay the message. Everybody got to their spots. I got to mine.”
As for the shot itself, coupled with the Game 2 winner: “Those are shots that you dream of as a little kid,” Murray said. “You practice in the backyard. At the playground.”
He was then reminded of another childhood memory, one that signifies why these playoff matchups with the Lakers have been so sentimental to Murray. James has his own impressive résumé of postseason game-winners, including a catch-and-shoot three to come from behind against Orlando in 2009. Murray was watching that one while wearing a LeBron jersey.
“I just remember talking to my dad — I’m a little kid, so I don’t know that much. And I’m like, ‘There’s no way they’re gonna win. There’s no way they’re gonna win.’ I just remember being out of breath, like I just got punched in the gut,” Murray said, grinning.
“I didn’t know how to react. He’s been one of my favorite players. … Just a pleasure to go against him, man. He makes you think during the game. He’s still a physically dominant guy out there, but he makes you think the game and the reads and the passes.”
The apprehension regarding Murray’s health isn’t resolved. He had to play Game 5 in a brace. Calf strains don’t disappear overnight. But he has a knack for supplying his most memorable moments in front of the least likely backdrops.
Now the Nuggets will have four days off to get him closer to 100% before the Timberwolves arrive. If Denver hadn’t closed out the first round Monday, the gamble would have been a waste.
“That was kind of the question,” Malone said. “Does Jamal sit tonight and you give him more days to rest up? Or do you kind of put all your chips in the middle of the table and say, ‘Look, we’re not going back to LA?’”
All’s well that ends well, for now. Malone called Murray “one tough cookie.” Watson went home with a different impression after seeing his starting point guard leaving Malone’s office.
“I think he was trying so hard to convince the training staff and the coaches that he was ready to play and that this was his moment, and there’s nothing that he cares about more than this,” Watson said. “So it’s something that’s amazing to see. … It means a lot to see him like that and be vulnerable.”
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