The Los Angeles Lakers had their Championship dream crushed by the Denver Nuggets a little over a week ago in the first round of the playoffs. After suffering a 4-1 gentleman’s sweep against the defending champions, LeBron James knows how tough they are to beat as a team. However, the four-time NBA Champion recently pushed back on the narrative that stopping Nikola Jokic is the ultimate key to solving the Denver Nuggets puzzle.
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On the recent episode of Mind the Game Pod, King James revealed that Jamal Murray really flies under the radar and actually deserves to be one of the biggest stars in the league, which is contrary to popular belief.
During the episode, JJ Redick asked his co-host, “What makes the Denver Nuggets puzzle so hard to solve?” LeBron thought for a second and said that Jokic is the primary threat in Denver. That is a no-brainer for these types of questions.
However, the Lakers superstar believes that the Joker’s partner-in-crime doesn’t get the acknowledgement that he deserves for everything that he does for the franchise. He said, “I don’t think Jamal Murray gets enough credit.” LeBron underlined that Murray is not a usual suspect in the All-NBA, All-Star conversations every year.
While this does make the Nuggets star go unnoticed by the majority, the ones who have played against him know that Murray is a stealth mode killer. LeBron added, “When it comes to nut crunching time, yes, Joker is gonna make a lot of plays. But it’s that motherf**ker Jamal Murray, who’s gonna send you home. And I’m a victim of it.”
Murray’s importance on his team can really be understood based on how the first two games of the Conference Semifinals have played out. The Nuggets are two down against Anthony Edwards and his Timberwolves at home. One of the biggest reasons behind that is Murray’s reduced output due to his injury.
LeBron underlined how Murray’s composed plays in the crunch time can send teams home. Denver will hope that 27-year-old recovers his health as the series moves to Minnesota. That’s the only way they could facilitate some kind of a comeback in the series.
Jamal Murray was preparing for the playoffs since childhood
It’s the love of the game that is really outlined in how some players talk about their journey. We’ve heard similar stories from stars like the late, great Kobe Bryant, who used to roll up his father’s socks into a ball to practice shots in his childhood. Murray had the same power of imagination when he was a kid.
In a clip uploaded by the NBA on YouTube last year, he revealed that he used to write down playoff seedings as a kid and would imagine himself being part of one of the teams. Murray also said that he used to imagine playing against the likes of Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace, “I was in deep. I was making shot after shot, trust me.”
This has been a special journey for Murray so far and now he has a superstar like LeBron James vouching for his abilities as a clutch player.
