It’s not secret that Jamal Murray has been lighting it up recently, becoming just the fourth player ever to score 50 points twice in the same playoff series (Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Donovan Mitchell). Murray is averaging a staggering 47.3 points over the last three games, shooting 62.9% from the three-point line.

Murray has been incredibly hot, but there was one move Nuggets coach Mike Malone implemented that has allowed Murray to have so many open looks.

On the Locked On Nuggets Podcast, hosts Adam Mares and Matt Moore discussed how changing the Nuggets' game plan regarding Nikola Jokic has actually helped Jamal Murray immensely.

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Adam Mares: One thing we really haven’t talked about in this series yet is that the Nuggets moved Jokic out of the pick-and-roll, they’re not using him, they didn’t do it in Game 5, they didn’t do it in this one. Instead, they’re electing to go to other players, Jerami Grant setting the screen, even Torrey Craig. They’ve gone to a double-stagger screen and it’s kind of flummoxed Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz defense. Because Gobert has been able to sit in that paint and camp out, but with Jokic as a sort of decoy in this offense, there’s nobody inside. There’s not that second line of defense for the Utah Jazz.

You used to write about Kawhi Island, how people would just put Kawhi out in the corner and takeaway some of his impact. Right now, the Nuggets are putting Gobert on Gobert Island out there with Jokic just covering the three-point line, and I think it’s one of the big reasons Jamal Murray has been able to go off as much as he has. Interesting development, I thought Utah looked pretty frustrated. Then Utah took Gobert off of Jokic and then Denver put Jokic in a pick-and-roll with Murray, and it works.

I’m really curious to see what Quinn Snyder comes up with for Game 7, because Rudy Gobert’s defensive impact has been mitigated quite a bit.

Game 7 can’t come soon enough to see how Snyder and the Jazz counter Murray’s hot shooting and see who moves on to face the Los Angeles Clippers.