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Even without head coach Mike Malone, Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets managed to collect yet another win Wednesday night, defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves at home, 122-118. Malone missed his second game in a row due to the NBA’s health and safety protocol, leaving David Adelman as the acting coach for the Nuggets.
After the game, Adelman said that having Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray makes life easier for Denver, even saying that seeing the duo work opposing defenses is “like watching Stockton and Malone.”
It's high praise, considering that Stockton and Malone arguably are the greatest duo ever to play in the NBA. You would expect Jokic or Murray to blush if someone were to tell them what Adelman just said. But that's not exactly what happened when Murray was asked about his thoughts on the comparison.
“I don't know if Stockton could score like me,” Jamal Murray said, per Mike Singer of the Denver Post.
While Jamal Murray is a more gifted athlete than Stockton, the former Utah Jazz court general's playmaking abilities are on another level. Stockton remains the all-time NBA leader in assists, and it's a record that is probably never going to be broken. Then again, Stockton was also an efficient scorer, as he averaged 13.1 points in his career while shooting 51.5 percent from the field, 38.4 percent from deep, and 82.6 percent from the free-throw line. Jokic might even be the better comparison to Stockton because of the Nuggets big man's court vision.
Against the Timberwolves, Jamal Murray scored 28 points pm 10-for-18 shooting from the field with four assists and two steals in 33 minutes of action.
