"He's a big-game player": Jamal Murray and the Nuggets aren't ready to go home

Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets were 22 minutes away from going home. Twenty two minutes away from leaving the Walt Disney World campus and the Gran Destino Tower forever. Twenty two minutes away from sleeping in their own beds for the first time in 50 days.

Michael Malone sensed it. With 9:44 remaining in the third quarter and the Nuggets trailing the Jazz 71-56, he thought his team might be about to let go of the rope. His bench had gone quiet. His players’ heads began to hang. Denver’s early third-quarter timeout wasn’t about drawing up a play or an action to get the Nuggets a bucket, it was Malone’s last shot at extending his team’s stay inside the NBA bubble for a few more days.

“I did not want to walk out of Orlando with our heads bowed down feeling sorry for ourselves,” Malone said. “Not in our nature.”

After Malone’s last-gasp pep talk, Torrey Craig sunk his only three-pointer of the night. On the Nuggets’ next possession, Paul Millsap sunk his only basket of the game. By the end of the third quarter, Denver had cut Utah’s lead to just three points. Then, Jamal Murray decided the Nuggets’ time at Disney World wasn’t quite up.

Murray tallied 33 of his game-high 42 points in the second half and 16 over the final 12 minutes of regulation to propel the Nuggets to a 117-107 win and keep Denver alive in the series. Murray was spectacular in the fourth quarter of Game 5. Hit shot-making was brilliant. His leadership was inspiring. His calm and focused demeanor in the most pressure-packed moment of the Nuggets’ season was stunning.

“The young man is growing up and turning into a superstar on the biggest stage,” Malone said. “And I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Every fourth-quarter shot of Murray’s that whipped through the nylon seemed more difficult than the last. And with every make, the 23-year-old’s confidence grew. With 3:24 left in the fourth, Murray somehow had the awareness to corral the offensive rebound and square up to the rim before the shot clock expired, giving the Nuggets two-point lead.

On the next possession, Murray somehow willed this three-pointer into the basket. Two words: shooter’s touch.

Moments later, Murray was isolated on the left wing against Donovan Mitchell.

Splash.

Then, it was Royce O’Neale’s turn to dance. After holding Murray to 26 combined points in Games 2 and 3, Murray has scored 92 points over Games 4 and 5 with O’Neale as his primary defender.

As defenders converged on Murray at the rim with the Nuggets leading by six and Denver looking for the kill shot, he found Nikola Jokic alone in the corner.

Murray was 7-8 from the floor in the fourth quarter of Game 4 (of course he played the entire period) with four assists. For the game, he also tallied eight rebounds, eight assists and zero turnovers. Murray hasn’t turned the ball over since the third quarter of Game 3.

“Whenever he’s like that we are wining the game,” said Jokic who scored 21 of his 31 points in the first quarter. “Or we’re really close.”

Murray’s affinity for the big stage and the bright lights is the worst kept secret in the Western Conference. The Kitchener, Ontario native thrives in the spotlight but also craves it.

Malone first remembers seeing Murray shine in a high-leverage situation as a rookie. During a home date with Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade and the Chicago Bulls. Murray came off the bench to score a team-high 24 points and lead the Nuggets to a come-from-behind victory.

“The first time I saw him start slinging arrows all over the place,” Malone said thinking back to the November, 2016 game. “He took over and you could see he fed off the energy of the crowd. He’s always had that. He came to us with that. He’s a big-game player.”

“Jamal embraces the moment. He’s not afraid of it. Some people run away from those moments. He looks for them. … His attitude, that swagger, that confidence, that is contagious to all our other players.”

Murray’s competitive juices also start flowing when the stakes get higher, and they’ve never been higher for the Nuggets this season than in Game 5 as Denver tried to stave off elimination. In the third, he turned up his defensive effort a few notches contributing to the Nuggets’ stingy second-half defense that held the Jazz to just 44 points over the third and fourth quarters. Denver upped its ball pressure on Utah’s guards and fought through the Jazz’s screens with more force. In crunch time, Murray’s growing voice shined through as well.

For most of the fourth, Murray ran point for a lineup that featured Jokic, Jerami Grant, PJ Dozier and Michael Porter Jr. that outscored the Jazz 33-14 in 10 fourth-quarter minutes. The average age of that five-man group which Murray captained during a strenuous final frame? Twenty-four years old.

“It’s not just me putting the ball in the hoop,” said Murray said. “It’s a collective effort for us to get better.”

But Murray understands that right now in this series he’s the straw that stirs the drink for Denver. Murray’s now averaging 30.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game in the series. When the Nuggets need someone to go shot-for-shot with Mitchell, it’s going to be him. When Denver needs to change the momentum of a game, he has to be the catalyst.

“When I play harder everybody plays harder,” Murray stated. “That’s just the nature of our team.”

Murray’s best play of the night wasn’t even during his late-fourth-quarter takeover. In the final minute of the third, he split a Jazz trap, barreled down the lane and sprung towards the basket, converting an acrobatic 360-degree layup that looked like it belonged on the And1 Mixtape Tour, not a stage like the NBA playoffs.

Denver’s point guard playing through another injury in Game 5 certified this performance as another Murray classic. I’ve watched Murray for the past four seasons and still don’t quite know how he does it. One minutes he’s barely walking. The next, he’s stopping his dribble on a dime, stepping back and sinking a high-arching fadeaway over his defender. Murray wasn’t 100% for most of Tuesday’s Game 5 and cameras caught him grimacing and limping at times as he ran up the floor.

It didn’t matter.

“You know me better than that,” Murray said of playing through another injury. “It’s a challenge for me. I’ve got this big bruise on my knee but I’ll be fine. That’s the least of our worries.”

Because of Murray, the Nuggets live to fight another day.

Game 6 is Thursday. Denver isn’t ready to leave Disney World quite yet.

“I could tell after Game 4 our guys were not ready to go home. I could tell that yesterday. I could tell that this morning,” Malone said. “And Jamal, when the game was on the line, took over.”