Jamal Murray’s 45-point game powers Nuggets to win over Mavericks

DALLAS — Jamal Murray called his shots.

With a laugh and maybe a little venom in his in 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.”

It turned out to be an understatement. Murray was the best he’s been all season in a 118-99 Nuggets win over the Mavericks, piling on 32 of his 45 points in the first half at American Airlines Center.

The Mavericks, meanwhile, did not 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 as well,” Murray said. “The ball has energy, and it was finding me today, and I was just rolling. So I wasn’t looking into it too much. I was just flowing with the game and playing it free. If I missed a shot, if I turned it over, it was on to the next play. And it’s nice to play just kind of free-minded. Sometimes you can have so many negatives in the game, where it just compounds from one player to another. Today it was just the opposite.”

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

Malone had Murray’s back even more adamantly Tuesday.

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

Denver (24-15) has won four in a row and eight of its last 10 after sweeping Dallas in a two-game series. Now half a game out of third place in the West, the Nuggets will fly home to host the second-place Rockets in a back-to-back 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 first quarter packed with highlights and accompanied by three assists. He buried three of his five 3-pointers in the first five minutes, spotting up and pulling up to give Denver a 14-6 lead.

He knew he had it going “as soon as the second one went in.” Once the third went in, he started letting Malone know about it.

“Normally I come out around six minutes,” he said. “I told coach probably two or three times, ‘Do not take me out.’ So I’m glad he didn’t.”

Reminiscent of the 2023 NBA Finals or the COVID-19 bubble or even his impressive 2023-24 regular season, Murray 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 backpedaling into Malone’s space on the sideline. The third time he said it was after a Jason Kidd timeout.

He started raining midrange buckets off the dribble. In the last 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 to go.

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

The icing on the first-quarter 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 by halftime.

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

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

Nikola Jokic didn’t attempt a shot until 10 minutes into the game and deferred to teammates as often as he could throughout the night, finishing with a 10-point, 14-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in 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 needing to check Jokic back into the game when Dallas sliced a once 31-point lead to 14 early in the fourth. But Julian Strawther, Murray (twice) and Aaron Gordon hit consecutive jumpers for a 10-0 run that saved garbage time.

Gordon returned to the lineup Sunday after missing nine games with a right calf strain, but he didn’t start in either Dallas game. Malone says he anticipates that remaining Gordon’s role “for a while,” with a targeted sweet spot around 18 minutes.

“There’s no rush to push this,” Malone said. “We’ve been playing at a high level with Aaron out.”

Gordon concurred that he’s comfortable coming off the bench, prompting Malone to laud his selflessness. They’ll need to work together to not get too far ahead of themselves, though. After missing 10 games in November with the same injury, Gordon went past his minutes restriction in his second game back to help secure a comeback win over the Warriors. Four days later, his calf forced Denver to play without him in a loss to the Wizards.

“I think he’s at a point now — he understands, let’s be smart about our approach,” Malone said. “Even in a competitive situation when we’re in the fourth quarter, and we’re coming back, and he has a lot to do with that: ‘Hey now, we’re at your minutes restriction. You’ve gotta come out.’ That’s not easy, but I think he understands.”

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