Over 20 players have scored 40 points in the playoffs six or more times. All of them have been All-Stars except Jamal Murray. Individual accolades are cool, but all that stuff goes out the window when it's time to step in between those lines.
Murray's regular-season production has been steady, but he turns into a one-legged shot-making flame-throwing closer in the postseason. The Los Angeles Clippers are the latest team (he's burned them before) to feel the rise of Playoff Murray.
The Denver Nuggets' chance to win it all this year was seemingly false hope after they fired Mike Malone with three games to go in the regular season. Management thought that that move would spark the team. Collectively, the NBA community wasn't buying it, but we should've factored in Murray returning to his stellar playoff ways after a suspect showing.
Subscribe to the Whiteboard, FanSidedās daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you donāt like it, share it with an enemy!
Nuggets are a contender when Jamal Murray is flaming
The three reasons I was out on Denver entering this postseason were the firing of the best coach in their history, their opponent-friendly 21st-ranked regular season defense, and the Jamal Murray question mark. He hobbled into these playoffs. Factoring in last year's no-show vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves didn't give me the confidence to expect him to get to his usual playoff level.
Granted, Murray did explode for 35 points in Game 7 of the Wolves series, but for the series, he was subpar, averaging 18 points, shooting 33 percent from deep, and having a below-league average true shooting percentage (48). He's clearly proved me wrong for not believing Playoff Murray was still in there. The Clippers are paying for it.
Murray cooked the Clippers in a pivotal Game 5, who have one of the strongest defensive infrastructures in the league. Kris Dunn is an elite point-of-attack defender, Derrick Jones Jr. is great, Kawhi is Kawhi, and Zubac holds it down at the rim. All that's fine and dandy, but nothing phases Murray when he has it going. Those one-legged shots pierced hearts Tuesday night.
These levels of performance aren't now. They're the norm for him. Last year's debacle in Minnesota was a rarity in Murray's career. Let's look at some of the series in his career from a scoring and shot-making perspective.
2023 Western Conference Finals vs Los Angeles Lakers
32.5 points per game, 40% on 9.3 3-point attempts, 65 TS%
2020 1st round vs Utah Jazz
31.6 points per game, 53% on 8.6 3-point attempts, 68 TS% (two 50-point games)
2023 1st round vs Minnesota Timberwolves
27.2 points per game, 43% on 8.4 3-point attempts, 60 TS%
Jamal Murray is a player who's always gotten better in the playoffs. He was the closing shot-maker in the Nuggets' lone 2023 championship run. He averages 24.2 points per game in the playoffs for his career. That's more than Russell Westbrook, Larry Bird, Kyrie Irving, Dwyane Wade, and Tracy McGrady.
Murray might not be a player who carries the load in the regular season, but when the calendar flips to April, he activates and makes this Nuggets team a true title contender.