Jamal Murray may not have stuffed the stat sheet in the Denver Nuggets’ series-stying Game 4 win but he sure made an impact. He was still the primary playmaker and executed well in his two-man game with Nikola Jokic. He was hounded a lot by the Minnesota Timberwolves but this meant that his gravity is immense in this NBA Playoffs series. A big reason why they took so long for the improvements? Well, it sounds like the Los Angeles Lakers got them accustomed to certain unrushed adjustments.
Nuggets wake up and get adjusted
Game 2 was tough for the Nuggets. They lost with a 117 to 90 scoreline which did not at all scream defending champions. This apparently woke up the Nikola Jokic-led squad. They knew that their road back to a second Larry O’Brien trophy in the NBA Playoffs was not going down the drain with a three-to-one series deficit. So, they turned the jets on.
Apparently, Jamal Murray admitted that the Lakers had something to do with their slow pace of implementing changes. The Nuggets’ star guard posits that they were just so used to the squad from California that they had forgotten that the Timberwolves were way better defensively, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. However, the most important thing now is that the Nuggets have figured the Timberwolves out.
It showed in their 107 to 115 win in Game 4 of this NBA Playoffs series. They were clearly running away with the win and the margin could have been higher had Chris Finch’s squad not performed better. It was evident in how they got everyone involved which led to a total of 29 assists.
Another big help was that everyone on the Nuggets squad was ready to shoot. Whenever they got the ball, whether it was through an inside pass, a cut, or coming off a screen, everybody was lethal on all three levels of scoring. This is why the Nuggets shot with an outstanding 57% clip from the field and even went 44.8% from way out.
Timberwolves falter against the Murray-Jokic two-man game
If either one of Nikola Jokic or Jamal Murray has the ball, the primary defender can always expect the involvement of the other. The two have a symbiotic relationship in executing picks, pops, and handoffs. This time the Timberwolves hounded Murray. All of it meant that Chris Finch would rather see the newly-crowned three-time Most Valuable Player pop off. They picked the wrong poison.
Jokic had a 57.7% clip from the field which netted him 35 points in this NBA Playoffs matchup. He then made easy passes to cutters like Aaron Gordon which helped his team get so much offensive momentum. At the end of the game, his assist total was at seven.
Defensively, it was also not a good idea to get a switch on him at all. The Nuggets big man held his own and even recorded three steals. A brave soul from the Timberwolves tried to shoot over him which ended, very expectedly, in a block.
All of this adds to the Nuggets’ arsenal of experiences.
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