The Denver Nuggets’ point guard is their center, and their center is their point guard. OK, that’s painting with too broad a brush, but at certain points this season, the responsibilities Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic have as ball handler and big man have blurred.
Late in the second quarter of Tuesday’s Game 5 win, Murray shot up from the left corner, set a screen on Jakob Poeltl, popped to the the 3-point arc, received a pass from Jokic then whipped it right back to him for a layup. Murray and Jokic combined to score 39 points (14-of-27 shooting), grab 15 rebounds and hand out 15 assists in the 108-90 win. Their fingerprints were all over the most important game of their budding careers.
The chemistry the 6-foot-3 Canadian and 7-foot Serbian have developed over the last three seasons has popped on the playoff stage.
“Almost romantic,” was how Nuggets coach Michael Malone described it. “They care about each other. They love each other. They play for each other.”
The Nuggets scored their first basket of the game on a high pick-and-roll. This one was of the more traditional variety: Murray as the ball handler and Jokic as the screener. A strong screen from Jokic created a passing lane as wide as the Riverwalk. Jokic punctuated the play with a dunk, just his 12th since the start of the regular season.
As the plays above illustrate, what makes the Murray-Jokic two-man game unique is both players are as capable with the ball in their hands as they are screening. Their comfort in nontraditional roles dates back to their youth basketball days. Jokic was a self-described “fat point guard” growing up in Sombor, Serbia, while Murray learned to relish contact playing the 5 during grade school in Kitchener, Canada.
“I like hitting people. I like setting good screens,”Murray said. “I’ve done it all. Footwork and the screening, I’m used to it. Joker played point guard guard, so we kind of understand how to do both.”
The 22-year-old with the sweet stroke doesn’t shy away from contact. As a kid, Murray’s father, Roger, taught him kung fu. The two also sparred and wrestled.
“He would put me in a lock where I couldn’t get out,” Murray said. “I’d have to build up that strength to get out no matter what.”
During the regular season, Murray ranked fifth among all guards in “screen assists,” which occur any time a player sets a screen for a teammate that directly leads to a field goal by that teammate. Murray has learned that setting screens not only creates room for others but himself, too. Watch below: Derrick White is a half-step behind Murray after he screens for Millsap. That small advantage is all the Nuggets need to eventually convert an and-1.
“I look forward to getting open,” Murray said. “Setting screens, that opens up everything. That opens up his (Jokic’s) passing, which he loves to do. He can get downhill. He can get to the rim, and a lot of times hit me on the roll. Like I said, we just read it.”
Nuggets front office staffers have often described Jokic as an artist. Denver is at its best when it goes off script and lets Jokic paint the canvas the way he sees fit. Malone said he called almost no sets in the third quarter Tuesday. Denver put up 32 points in the quarter to San Antonio’s 21, which put the game out of reach.
“The beautiful game,” Malone said.
When Jokic broke out as the freewheeling hub of Denver’s high-powered offense in 2016-17, Gary Harris was the first figure to player out how many easy baskets he could get by playing off of him. Two years later, the chemistry Murray has developed with Jokic is just as strong.
After going down 2-1, the Nuggets have regained control of the series with double-digit wins in Games 4 and 5. Harris’ defense on Derrick White has been crucial in the turnaround. Offensively, Murray and Jokic have done the heavy lifting. The connection between the two, as unorthodox as it can look at times, has the Nuggets on the cusp of their first playoff series win in a decade.
“Two high-IQ players,” Malone said. “Two guys who are unselfish and just playing off of each other. Guys understand the type of player that Nikola is. Jamal, Gary and a lot of guys have adjusted to that, and it makes their lives a hell of a lot easier on the floor.”
