Murray dodges injury scare as intense Nuggets rout Phoenix
The basketball was loose, a wild scramble ensued and big bodies hit the deck. Guard Bones Hyland finally came away with the ball and cooly drained a 29-foot 3-pointer. The crowd erupted.
Nuggets 44, Suns 30, early in the second quarter. The romp was on.
“I loved that play,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “When you have effort plays like that, those are winning plays, those are gamechanging plays. That was one of my favorite plays of the night.”
The final: Nuggets 126, Suns 97. Hyland sparked the victory with 21 points on 7 of 12 shooting, including 5 of 7 from behind the arc.
“I was really just feeling it,” Hyland said. “The basket felt like it was really wide. It was like shooting a rock into the ocean.”
The Nuggets dodged some potentially bad news. Star guard Jamal Murray came up limping after turning his left ankle early in the fourth quarter. Murray left the game and did not return. Malone, however, believes it’s a minor injury.
“He just rolled his ankle a little bit and I was actually happy to hear that it wasn’t his (surgically repaired) knee,” Malone said after the game. “It’s just his ankle and he said he’s fine and it wasn’t anything too bad.
“But with the game being where it was at, he just wanted to go to (the locker room) to get some treatment. He should be good to go next game.”
Murray is listed as probable for Friday’s game at Los Angeles when Thursday’s injury report came out. Nikola Jokic was questionable due to right wrist injury management.
Jokic, stating his case on national TV for his third consecutive MVP, scored 21 points on 10 of 15 shooting in 28 minutes. He added 18 rebounds and nine assists, coming up one key deft pass short of his 13th triple- double of the season.
Denver won its 12th consecutive home game and the Western Conference leaders hold a 28-13 record at the season’s halfway point. The Suns were without Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.
The Nuggets played with enough defensive intensity to burn out the weary Suns early. In the second quarter, the Nuggets forced two shot- clock violations. Defense and rebounding paved the way for a lot of easy points, as Denver outscored the Suns 24- 6 on fastbreak points.
Wednesday’s game marked the second of four meetings between the teams this season and the first since Denver won in overtime on Christmas night. Jokic had a 41-point, 15-rebound, 15-assist triple- double in that game.
The Nuggets next play the Clippers on Friday night in Los Angeles.