Jamal Murray warned Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine that he should start double-teaming Nikola Jokic during their pick-and-roll sequence. LaVine, even though he's aware of the Denver Nuggets star's capabilities, did not heed Murray's advice at all.
Per Ryan Blackburn of the Denver Stiffs, Murray shared the hilarious exchange between him and LaVine. The Bulls star should've followed Murray's tip, as Jokic beasted and feasted on Chicago for a cool 39 points and 14 rebounds.
“I'm not gonna lie, we ran the same play over and over…I was trying to tell Zach [LaVine], I said ‘You better help, or else he gonna score.' He said, ‘I'm not helping off you Jamal!' I'm like, ‘Alright, bet!'” the Nuggets guard shared.
Below is one of the pick-and-roll plays between Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. Notice that Zach LaVine did not even bother to switch to Jokic after the screen. Hell, he didn't even try to prevent the pass.
What made it worse was that the play was right at the two-minute mark of a close game. The dunk tied the game and gave the Nuggets ample momentum to finish it off–and Denver did just that, snagging the 118-112 victory.
Nikola Jokic cuts and drives in for a big clutch dunk late in the 4th quarter for the and-1 to put the #Nuggets ahead.#MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/8rF5W0xkFT
— Joel Rush (@JoelRushNBA) March 2, 2021
Jokic's dunk caught everyone by surprise, even the Nuggets All-Star himself. It's not every day that we see the Serbian spike one down–as it's usually soft layups, slow jump shots or sneaky putbacks. With that said, unleashing a slam dunk once in a while was a shocking yet welcome sight.
Nikola Jokic, on the dunk:
“Is this my first ever poster in my life?”
— Mike Singer (@msinger) March 2, 2021
This should serve as a lesson to LaVine to take Murray's advice seriously. Other teams should be taking notes if they don't want another Jokic slam stuffed on their faces.
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