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‘The best is yet to come’: Jamal Murray delivers stellar performance in Nuggets’ Game 2 win over Timberwolves

Michael Malone had no doubt the Nuggets faithful inside Ball Arena would rise to the occasion on Wednesday night.

With the Nuggets up nine points with 11 seconds left, Malone pulled Jamal Murray from the game and allowed him to soak in the crowd after a 40-point performance that led Denver to a 122-113 Game 2 win, giving the team a 2-0 series lead.

As Murray walked off the floor to a standing ovation, Malone pulled in Murray for a big embrace.

“He left a piece of him out there tonight,” Malone said postgame. “For 39 minutes, I just thought he was so impactful across the board — passionate, heartfelt performance.”

Murray finished 40 points on 13-for-22 shooting, including 6-for-10 from 3-point range, in what was his fifth career 40-point game in the playoffs.

But this was the first time he got to do it with fans in the crowd, let alone not in an empty gym in the Orlando bubble, so that ovation at the end of the game was extra special — even if he was almost too exhausted to notice.

“It’s nice having a crowd,” Murray said. “It’s great energy ,they’re into every possession in the game. It fires us up when we’re not playing our best (and) helps us turn things around.

I ain’t going to lie, I haven’t had the playoff physicality in a couple of years. It was good to play through it and play a lot of minutes tonight.”

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Nuggets Jamal Murray passes the ball past Timberwolves Taurean Prince during the third quarter of a game of the second game of the first playoff series in the Western Conference at Ball Arena on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)

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Nuggets Jamal Murray passes the ball past Timberwolves Taurean Prince during the third quarter of a game of the second game of the first playoff series in the Western Conference at Ball Arena on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)



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What was also similar to Murray’s stellar few weeks in the bubble was the fact that he went toe-to-toe with another elite scorer on the other side.

Murray and the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards went shot-for-shot down the stretch, just like Murray and Donovan Mitchell did in that Nuggets-Jazz series in the bubble.

Edwards matched Murray’s 6-for-10 performance from 3-point range and finished with a game-high 41 points, but that only pushed Murray to do more for his team.

“When guys elevate their game, it shows who you are if you’re going to fight and challenge them or back down,” Murray said. “Ant played great. He was hitting some great shots.”

It may be time to stop referring to that performance by Murray in the bubble as an anomaly, though.

Sure, he’s admitted how tough it was to sit on the sidelines for two straight postseasons, but he doesn’t feel like he became some different person because of the injury he suffered.

At just 26-years-old, he says the best is yet to come and performances like the one on Wednesday night only prove his point.

“I’m kind exhausted of hearing (about) that person as if it’s not me,” Murray said. “That was just the beginning and I have to keep my mentality that way.”

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