AP – Jamal Murray didn’t even see the biggest basket of his career. At least not live, he didn’t. Murray swished a step-back 15-footer over Anthony Davis at the buzzer on Monday night, giving the Denver Nuggets a stunning 101-99 win over the Los Angeles Lakers and capping a comeback from a 20-point second-half deficit.
Murray tumbled into the Nuggets’ bench along with Davis just as his shot fluttered the net and the roar from the crowd shook Ball Arena.
“I just lost my balance and fell. I think Davis was in my way or somebody was in my way and I just heard everybody scream and that’s how I knew it went in,” said Murray, who was mobbed by his teammates after his bucket gave the reigning NBA champions their 10th consecutive win over the Lakers. More importantly, it gave Denver a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference series that shifts to Los Angeles for game three on Friday morning.
Murray missed 13 of his first 16 shots and was easily the most flustered, frazzled and frustrated of all his teammates when it appeared the Nuggets would lose to the Lakers for the first time in 494 days.
“I told my teammates when I was struggling, ‘I’m gonna look for y’all’, and every single one of them told me to keep shooting,” recounted Murray, who did just in going six-for-eight for 14 points in the fourth quarter to finish with 20 points.
“They told me to stay aggressive and keep looking for it, keep hunting and when I had the ball with two seconds left, I knew once I had made a couple, the next one should go down, as well.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone chose not to call a timeout after Michael Porter Jr grabbed the rebound off LeBron James’ missed three-pointer with 13 seconds left and the game knotted up at 99.
“We got the stop. Tie game. Why let them get set?” Malone reasoned. “Because, when they can get set and they switch out everything, you might not even get the ball inbounds. So, I wanted to make sure we could just flow into it and let our best players make plays.”
Murray faked like he was going to take a three-pointer, got Davis to close and then beat him to his spot along the right baseline for the clear look. “That’s Jamal Murray right there,” Malone said. “He can struggle, he can struggle, he can struggle. He sees one go in and he’s never shying away from the moment, the spotlight. And that was just an incredible play.”
