‘In the zone,’ Murray nets 45 as Nuggets cruise

DALLAS — After Jamal Murray‘s best offensive performance of the season, Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone defended his star guard who admittedly struggled to start the season.

“I think the microscope on Jamal is a little intense,” Malone said after Murray scored a season-high 45 points Tuesday night to lead the Nuggets to a 118-99 win over the Dallas Mavericks. “Everybody’s just got to kind let the kid breathe a little bit. He’s not perfect. And if you look, I think his overall stats as of recently, he’s been very good for us.”

Murray was sensational from the opening tip Tuesday night, scoring 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the first quarter. The Nuggets’ typical rotation has Murray rest midway through the first quarter, but he made certain that wasn’t the case with him sensing that he was in a groove.

“Don’t take me out,” Murray said to Malone on a couple of occasions early in the game, both coming after he made 3-pointers.

Malone happily granted that request, allowing Murray to play the entire quarter. Murray finished the first half with 32 points — two shy of his previous season high — on 12-of-15 shooting.

“You’re just in the zone and it’s fun,” said Murray, who finished 18-of-26 from the field and 5-of-9 from 3-point range while outscoring the Dallas starting lineup by a 45-39 margin. “Your team knows you’re in the zone. They’re trying to find you as well. The ball has energy and it was finding me today and I was just rolling, so I wasn’t looking into it too much. I was just flowing with the game and playing free.

“If I miss a shot or turn it over, it was on to the next play. And it’s nice to play just kind of free-minded, you know what I’m saying? Sometimes you can have so many negatives in the game where it just compounds from one player to another. And today it was just the opposite.”

As far as Malone is concerned, there has been far too much negativity this season regarding Murray, who signed a four-year, $208 million maximum contract extension during the offseason.

The Nuggets signed Murray, one of the stars of the franchise’s only NBA title run in 2023, to the maximum deal despite him playing poorly by his standards in last season’s playoffs and for Team Canada in the Olympics over the summer. He is averaging 19.8 points on 44.7% shooting this season, his lowest scoring average since 2019-20 and lowest field goal percentage since 2018-19.

“I think Jamal has been catching a lot of heat this year,” Malone said. “Jamal Murray didn’t pay himself $[52] million [per season]. We did that as an organization, because we believe in him.

“We don’t win our first franchise championship without Jamal Murray averaging 21, 10 and 6. You know what I mean? So I understand that everybody wants our guys to play perfect. Everybody wants us to be undefeated. Doesn’t happen like that. Every player goes through ups and downs. The most important thing for Jamal is to know that everybody in that locker room — coaches, players — has his back and we’re going to ride with him.”

Murray, who averaged 17.8 points on 42% shooting while the Nuggets stumbled to an 11-10 start, said he thought he deserved the criticism “to a certain extent.”

“It comes with the responsibilities,” Murray said. “I’m totally ready for it. That’s why I literally signed up for it. … I admit I haven’t been playing well, so it’s not like it’s a surprise to me to hear from everybody else if I’m saying it as well.”

But Malone was adamant that Murray’s fifth career 40-point game should be characterized as the continuation of an outstanding stretch, not an outlier performance.

Malone pointed to Murray’s production during Denver’s run of 13 wins over the past 18 games. Murray has averaged 21.9 points while shooting 47.3% from the field and 43.3% from 3-point range during that span.

“I’ve had his back and I’ll always have his back,” Malone said. “It was just so rewarding to see him have the night that he had tonight and how excited his teammates were for him to go out there and score 45 in a very efficient manner.

“It wasn’t just a great game tonight. Jamal Murray has played really good basketball for us in the last 18 games. It’s not a small sample size, and we just got to keep him heading in the right direction.”