Jamal deserves NBA love like Luka
His will brought the Nuggets back from the dead. But it was his skill — 42 points ain’t too shabby — that allowed Denver to avoid NBA playoff elimination. In the Nuggets’ 117-107 victory against Utah, guard Jamal Murray created a little Disney magic of his own.
Not that anybody in America outside of the Rocky Mountains has much noticed.
If his name were Luka, would this league love Murray more?
On this Tuesday evening, Murray laced up his sneakers in honor of Black lives lost. It’s a cause bigger than basketball for him.
In a win-or-go-home playoff game, Murray rocked shoes adorned with the faces of the late Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, whose deaths have inspired a powerful movement demanding racial justice in a persistent manner not seen in these United States since the 1960s.
“I wear those Breonna (Taylor) shoes, those George Floyd shoes. We’ve been fighting that battle for 400 years,” Murray said. “The least I can do is go out there on the court and fight my battle and play as hard as I can.”
The NBA has a man, woman and child crush on young Dallas guard Luka Doncic. For good reason. He reminds folks of Larry Bird or LeBron James, depending on the day. Luka is good theater. Donic can dramatize the pain of a sprained ankle the way James Earl Jones does “King Lear.”
At the tender of age of 21, Doncic is the Next Big Thing. But Murray is only 23 years old himself.
Remember when folks regarded it as crazy money when Denver gave Murray that 5-year, $170 million extension? Now, it seems like a bargain to catch a thrill ride on a comet’s tail.
Murray is averaging 30.8 points per game in the playoffs, proving he’s got the game to match the brilliance of rising Utah star Donovan Mitchell, who’s not quite six months older than his Nuggets counterpart.
Denver coach Michael Malone calls it “The Jamal Murray Show.” Sounds kind of like a home movie, but one directed by George Lucas.
Cue the “Star Wars” theme song, because know what Murray did against the Jazz in Game 5, with the Nuggets’ season on the line? He saved the galaxy. By himself.
When the Nuggets were in desperate need of an electric jolt after falling behind 71-56 early in the third period, Murray was 100,000 watts of power. Did you see his 360degree, spin-o-rama, reverse layup that would do a young Air Jordan proud? I’m still dumbfounded.
With the score tied at 101 and only 3 minutes, 22 seconds, remaining in the fourth quarter for the Nuggets to avoid being expelled from the NBA bubble, Murray ignored a rapidly expiring shot clock to hit an 18-foot floater that I guarantee you made Alex English grin from ear to ear.
And on Denver’s very next offensive possession, Murray collected a loose ball at the 3-point line and fired a Blue Arrow straight through the heart of Utah’s resolve with a bucket that put the Nuggets ahead 106-101 and all but guaranteed they would survive to play another day.
“Jamal embraces the moment. He’s not afraid of it. Some people run away from those moments. He looks for them,” Malone said. “That attitude, that swagger is contagious to all our other players.”
And by the way, Murray played the hero while in some significant pain. He doesn’t seek your sympathy, though.
“I’ve got a big bruise on my knee,” Murray said. “But I’ll be fine.”
Perhaps if Murray milked the injury a little bit more, more peeps would think he’s got a little of the Luka magic in him.
Not to get everyone in the Rocky Mountains all worked up about living in the lost time zone, but the Nuggets were relegated to the undercard on the TV billing on this night of hoops and banished to the secondary gym on the Wide World of Sports campus, while You Know Who got the prime time slot to play the Los Angeles Clippers.
OK. We get it. Jamal is not Luka. On this night, Murray was better.
“The young man is growing up and becoming a superstar on the biggest stage,” Malone said.
Although Nikola Jokic is everybody’s Big Honey, the unassuming center sometimes needs a push to shine on the big stage. Murray has become the spiritual center of this team. His compete level is through the roof. And he has the onions that can make a helpless defender cry.
“We have that will to win,” said Murray, catalyst for the never-surrender attitude.
Down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, Joker gave the Nuggets a reason to believe by scoring 21 points in the first quarter against the Jazz. Murray did the rest.
“He started it,” Murray said. “And I finished it.”
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or @markkiszla