For the second time in four years, the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers are gearing up to square off against one another in the Western Conference Finals. With both teams playing at remarkably high levels heading into round three, this series is expected to be a highly entertaining and hard-fought affair that has the potential to go the distance. However, heading into Tuesday's Game 1, all. eyes currently seem to be on Jamal Murray and his up-in-the-air availability. With this, the question on every Nuggets fan’s mind: Is Jamal Murray playing tonight vs. the Lakers?

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Jamal Murray injury status vs. Lakers

Jamal Murray (illness) is available for Game 1 vs. the Lakers, via ClutchPoints, which means fans could expect to see the star guard in action for the Nuggets in this series tone-setter. The 26-year-old was previously at risk of being sidelined for Tuesday's tilt after being listed as “questionable” due to a non-covid illness, as per the league's official injury report.

After missing Denver's last two postseason excursions due to a torn ACL that relegated him to the sidelines for a whopping 18 months, Jamal Murray made his return to the hardwood in 2022-23.

Playing in 65 regular season games, the point guard showed what the Nuggets had been missing from their backcourt while he was away, as he finished off with impressive per-game averages of 20.0 points, 6.2 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 steals on 45.4% shooting from the floor and 39.8% shooting from deep while helping guide the club to the Western Conference's number one seed.

Murray's impact on the team has only continued on into the playoffs, as he's currently sporting tremendous averages of 25.9 points, 6.5 assists, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.3 steals while shooting 46.1% from the field and 39.5% from deep.

If Murray is limited, Denver could look to veteran Reggie Jackson to eat up some minutes, but obviously the stakes of this Game 1 might require Murray to tough it out.

So, regarding the question of whether or not Jamal Murray will be playing tonight vs. the Lakers, Ball Arena will be happy to know the answer is yes.