The Denver Nuggets have a commanding 3-0 lead over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. They are in prime position to advance to the NBA Finals. They need to win one more game though in this series, but they're not going to be satisfied simply by advancing to the next round. Following the Nuggets Game 3 win, Jamal Murray mentioned that the Nuggets still have five more wins to go in the NBA Playoffs. It revealed the Nuggets mindset about how a championship is the expectation this season and it was a sentiment echoed by Nuggets head coach Michael Malone as per Katy Winge of Altitude Sports Radio.
Coach Malone said there’s a reason the Nuggets players were not saying one more win last night and were instead saying 5 more wins.
“The goal was never to win the Western Conference Finals. The goal is to win an NBA Championship.”
— Katy Winge (@katywinge) May 21, 2023
Under Michael Malone, the Nuggets have steadily transformed into a championship contender. They reached the Western Conference Finals during the 2020 bubble but have been stifled in recent seasons due to injuries to Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. With both healthy this season and some major additions in Aaron Gordon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown since then, the Nuggets vaulted themselves to the top of the Western Conference.
Murray in particular has been unstoppable against the Lakers. In Game 2, Murray had 23 points in the fourth quarter as the Nuggets used a late flurry to overtake the Lakers. In Game 3, Murray set the tone early with a 17 point first quarter and 30 points overall by the half. Throughout the NBA Playoffs, he has been averaging a playoff career-high 27.9 points per game, 5.6 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.6 steals with shooting splits of 47.5 percent shooting from the field, 41.2 percent shooting from the three-point line and 91.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
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