On Monday evening, the Denver Nuggets finally ended their surprising four-game home losing streak with a narrow victory over the Houston Rockets. This win didn't come without controversy, as the Nuggets benefited from several questionable calls down the stretch, including a foul before a late inbounds pass that gave Denver a free throw, sending the game into overtime.
After the game, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka put the officiating crew on blast.
“Most poorly officiated game I’ve seen in a long time. Two have no business being out there and the crew chief was acting star struck,” said Udoka, per Vanessa Richardson of ESPN on X, formerly Twitter.
Now, Nuggets guard Jamal Murray is responding to those comments.
“I mean, it's a physical game. It's tough for the refs to call both sides, like, dead even. I think they missed some calls on our end, and they missed some calls on their end, so I don't really think that was an issue tonight,” said Murray, per Bennett Durando of the Denver Post.
Overall, the Nuggets will certainly take the win, especially after they had inexplicably dropped home games to lowly teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Chicago Bulls, and Sacramento Kings so far this year.
Denver now sits at 19-6, good for second place in the Western Conference, and has Nikola Jokic continuing to play at an MVP level. On Monday, the Joker dropped 39 points to go along with 15 rebounds and ten assists, and also delivered several clutch buckets down the stretch to help get the game into overtime, where he eventually fouled out of the contest.
In any case, the Nuggets will now have two days off before they next hit the floor on Thursday evening for a home game against the Orlando Magic. That game is set to tip off at 9:00 pm ET from the Ball Arena in Denver.
