Jamal Murray leads Nuggets to win over Mavericks

DALLAS – Jamal Murray called his shots.

With a laugh and maybe a little venom in his voice, he said Tuesday morning when asked how much his sore left knee is affecting him: “If you watch the game, I’m sure you’d be able to tell. At least the last game.

“But I should be better today.”

That turned out to be an understatement. Murray was at his best all season in a 118-99 Nuggets win over the Mavericks, scoring 32 of his 45 points in the first half at the American Airlines Center.

The Mavericks, meanwhile, didn’t have a single double-digit scorer at halftime.

“You’re just in the zone. It’s fun because your team knows you’re in the zone and they’re trying to find you, too,” Murray said. The ball has energy and it found me today and I just rolled. So I didn’t look at it that much. I just flowed with it. If I missed a shot, it was on to the next game. And it’s nice to play a little free have so many negatives in it the game where it just blends from one player to another. Today it was just the opposite.”

Murray’s season-high scoring night came on the heels of Michael Malone nearly shutting him down at halftime in Denver’s previous game on Sunday. Knee soreness hindered Murray until late in the third quarter from a stirring comeback, prompting Malone to defend his point guard after the win: “He’s not 100% healthy.”

Malone had Murray’s back even steeper Tuesday.

“I think the microscope on Jamal is a little intense,” he said. “Everybody just needs to let the kid breathe a little bit. He’s not perfect and if you look (at) I think his overall stats, recently, have been very good for us and he’s battling out there. … I have had his back and I’ll always have his back. It was just so rewarding to see him have the night he had tonight and how excited his teammates were for him.”

Denver (24-15) has won four straight and eight of its last 10 after sweeping Dallas in a two-game series. Now a half-game out of third place in the West, the Nuggets will fly home to host the second-place Rockets in a back-to-back on Wednesday.

Murray set a career high in first-half scoring en route to his second game this season with 30 or more points. He made 18 of 26 shots from the field, including a 7-for-9 highlight-reel first quarter accompanied by three assists. He buried three of his five 3-pointers in the first five minutes, fouled and pulled up to give Denver a 14-6 lead.

He knew he had it going “as soon as the second one walked in.” When the third walked in, he started telling Malone about it.

“Usually I get out about six minutes,” he said. “I probably said to the coach two or three times, ‘Don’t take me out’. So I’m glad he didn’t.”

Murray, reminiscent of the 2023 NBA Finals or the COVID-19 bubble or even his impressive 2023-24 regular season, was hungry for the ball every possession. The second time he repeated “don’t take me out” to Malone was after hitting a fadeaway jumper while cycling into Malone’s spot on the sideline. The third time, he said, was after a Jason Kidd timeout.

He started raining midrange buckets off the dribble. In the final minute of a 19-point quarter, he added a contested floater and a lefty layup that was pure magic, high off the glass, with 1.8 seconds left.

Murray also happened to compliment Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving on his ambidexterity after Denver’s morning shootaround, saying “I’d love to challenge him to a left-handed shooting contest.”

The icing on the cake: Quentin Grimes drained a 60-footer at the buzzer for Dallas, but it was waved off, released a tenth of a second too late. The Nuggets led by 15. It was 26 at halftime.

Irving was rusty in his return after missing a week with an injury. He was held to 11 points on 18 shots.

“Any time you set up like that in the first quarter, you’re pretty much, I wouldn’t say you’re guaranteed a 30-point game or 40-point game, but just (in) the rhythm of the game,” Irving said of Murray. “… Tonight he reacted really well. That’s what great players do.”

Nikola Jokic didn’t attempt a shot until 10 minutes into the game and dished to teammates as often as he could throughout the night, finishing with a 10-point, 14-rebound, 10-assist triple-double through three quarters. He assisted Murray’s first basket with perhaps his best dime of the season, a delicious swing pass out of the post to the weak side.

Malone was briefly in danger of having to check Jokic back into the game as Dallas blew a 31-point lead to 14 early in the fourth. But Julian Strawther, Murray (twice) and Aaron Gordon hit back-to-back jumpers for a 10-0 run that saved the game.

Gordon returned to the lineup Sunday after missing nine games with a right calf strain, but he did not start in any of the Dallas games. Malone says he expects Gordon’s role to remain “for a while,” with a targeted sweet spot around 18 minutes.