Roger Murray is there for every warmup.
When his son takes the floor for his pregame shouting routine around an hour before every game, Roger is always watching from his regular spot behind the basket. Then, when Jamal’s warmup is complete, some last-minute father-son advice ahead of what for the last several weeks has repeatedly been the most important game of the Nuggets point guard’s life.
“Show your passion. Know the moment,” Roger Murray told DNVR regarding the advice he gives Jamal. “Try to reach your goals and do whatever it takes to reach those goals.”
Murray and the Nuggets have nearly reached their ultimate goal. Denver is one win away from its first NBA Championship, which can be clinched tonight with one more win over the Miami Heat at Ball Arena. Individually, Murray has accomplished a ton this postseason too.
In the playoffs, he’s averaging 26.7 points (47.6 FG%, 40.1 3P%), 5.5 rebounds, 7.1 assists, and only 2.3 turnovers per game. It’s better stats than Murray posted during the Nuggets’ 2020 bubble run to the Western Conference Finals.
In the Finals vs. the Heat, Murray’s scoring is down — mostly due to the increased attention and defensive game plan that Miami has deployed through four games — but his assists are up. If his 10.5 assists per game average holds, Murray will average the 9th-most most assists in NBA Finals history and the most since Michael Jordan in 1991. He’s the first player in NBA history to begin his Finals career with four-straight 10+ assist games.
“I feel like he’s better now than he was before the injury,” Michael Porter Jr. said of Murray in April.
That doesn’t seem like a debatable topic anymore. Murray has grown and matured from the player he was during the 2020 playoffs and the subsequent 2020-21 season. He’s reading the court better than he ever has. His awareness is at a different level than in years past. He’s morphed into a seasoned floor general who doesn’t have any holes left in his game.
“I’ve long said that Jamal is not just a scorer, and that’s been my challenge to him,” said Michael Malone. “That should be an affront to him, that people just look at him as a scorer.”
And Murray can still do that too. He’s gone for 30+ points in eight of Denver’s 19 playoff games this postseason. He went for 40 in Game 2 vs. Minnesota. Then 35 in the Nuggets’ Game 5 closeout win over the Timberwolves. Murray tallied 37 points in Game 2 and then again in Game 3 vs. the Lakers. In the Nuggets’ Game 3 win over the Heat, Murray played one of the better games of his career: 34 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 15-point Denver victory.
“He’s a really good leader out there,” Nikola Jokic said. “And we’re just following him.”
Murray’s propensity to show up in the biggest moments has also been a theme throughout these playoffs. It’s been a theme throughout Murray’s entire career. There’s an incredible amount of trust that you have in Murray during the game’s most intense minutes. There’s a calmness that he brings to the floor in those situations. You have faith that he’s always going to make the right decision. Murray continually levels up his play when the spotlight’s shining on him.
That’s always been the case, Roger says.
“This is from years of work. This is what he’s been doing since he was a little boy,” Roger told DNVR about Jamal thriving under pressure. “This is what he’s always been doing. It’s the biggest stage, but he’s been doing this forever. This is not new to me or him. He’s just gotten better over the years.”
By now, you’ve heard of the training that Roger put Jamal through when he was honing his basketball skills in Kitchener, Ontario. Jamal would balance cups of hot tea on his thighs while in a deep-knee squat. He’d do pushups in the snow. He’d run hills before school and dribble a basketball on sheets of ice to better his ball handling.
Before games, Murray visualizes what he wants to do on the court later that night. He’ll typically ask the Nuggets’ equipment team what jersey Denver is wearing for its next game so Murray can piece together an even clearer picture of how he wants to play.
It’s all given Murray a never-ending supply of mental toughness and composure that’s been integral to his performance during the most consequential moments of these playoffs.
“My training works,” Roger told DNVR. “No matter what they say, my training works.”
The fact that this is Murray’s first season since his ACL injury isn’t getting enough play right now. Players aren’t supposed to look this good in their first season back after that type of injury. But Murray has made a living off of raising the expectations that everyone has of him to new heights. He always makes you want more, and he usually delivers.
Murray has to deliver just one more time. In Game 5, Murray and the Nuggets can write their legacy. A championship is there for the taking.
When the moment arrives, he’ll be ready.
“We train for the moment because that’s the moment that we have to perform in,” Roger told DNVR. “The regular thing is the regular thing. Anybody can do it. But the moment is the moment, and that’s what you put your work in for.”
