Jokic historic, Murray comes up clutch as the Nuggets defend homecourt

By Jafar Gibbons

Jokic tallied 23 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists for yet another triple-double, marking his fourth in a row, the first player to ever record such a feat. It was his seventh of these playoffs, making him tied for the most in a single NBA postseason.

Lets face it, Jokic is doing what he wants against the best defensive team of the 2023 Playoffs, regardless of the schemes employed to combat his skillset. Denver Nuggets outrebounded the Lakers and moved to 8-0 at home when winning the rebounding battles in games.

Jamal Murray reminded us all of what an elite scorer he is, tallying 37 points on 46% shooting from the field, and 43% on threes in 42 minutes. He had an exceptional game, making big shots after big shots, including 23 points in the fourth quarter, making him the player with the most 20-point fourth quarter in the playoffs in the last 25 seasons. No active player has more than 1.

Murray’s shooting was also impressive considering he missed 12 of his 17 shots through 3 quarters. Denver’s effort was also impressive when considering Bruce Brown’s impressive play from the bench, adding 12 points and an impressive late-game steal on Lebron James to secure the win.

Let us face it, the Lakers will not beat the Nuggets if Lebron and Davis do not show up for these games. The 2 players combine for a total of 40 points, which was just 3 more than Murray’s total alone.

Lebron missed all 6 of his shots from beyond the arc and the Nuggets were able to sneak away with the victory. The Lakers have real trouble on their hands with Davis being a minus-10 last night. Rui Hachimura was impressive, scoring 21 points on 80% shooting, making all 7 shots of the first half.

The series head back to Los Angeles for games 3 and 4, starting Saturday (tomorrow) at 8:30 PM ET.