“He banged up”: Nikola Jokic comments on Jamal Murray’s performance in playoff loss vs Lakers

Jamal Murray’s stock has skyrocketed in these playoffs. Teammate Nikola Jokic lauded him as the team’s leader for playing through his injury trouble in Game 5.

Although the Denver Nuggets got dumped out of the playoffs in the same number of games as the Blazers and the Rockets, they earned far more respect than the Lakers’ two previous opponents. They put more pressure on the offensive end on the Lakers than the other two teams, and they were also in really close contention for 2 of their defeats, if not 3.

Nikola Jokic’s words in praise of Jamal Murray

In the post-game presser, Nikola Jokic was full of praise for his teammate Jamal Murray, who was the life and soul of the Nuggets’ perimeter offense.

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“He was our leader.. He was banged up. [..] He’s a dog. He’s a fighter. He’s a competitor. He’s an amazing shooter. He played amazing. Since when I came here five years ago, we had 33 wins that season. And today we’re in the WCF..”

Murray set a Nuggets franchise record for points in a single playoff campaign, scoring 504 points this time around.

Prior to Game 4 of the Lakers series, Murray was shooting a scorching 64% from 3-point range in 4th quarters of the playoffs and 58% from the field.

He hadn’t missed a single of his 20 free throw attempts at the end of games. Murray was, quite literally, the definition of clutch.

It was Murray’s resurgence in the Clippers series that brought the Nuggets back into the fray after they looked dead and buried early in the second half of Game 5 of that series.

Murray’s ability to score at all 3 levels and be a willing playmaker has the ability to lead the Denver Nuggets, along with Jokic, to much postseason success.