After the Denver Nuggets lost Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, much of the talk has been about Nikola Jokic's 41-point performance and how Denver seemingly struggles when he's having a big-scoring night. Jamal Murray, however, is not buying that losing narrative.
With Sunday's loss, the Nuggets actually fell to 0-3 in games this 2023 NBA Playoffs where Jokic scored 40 or more points. Prior to the NBA Finals Game 2, the last time it happened was in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Phoenix Suns. The Joker had 53 points in the said contest, but Denver ended up losing 129-124.
Of course it's a concerning trend for the Nuggets. If they can't win in games where Jokic takes a scoring role, then they could be in deep trouble.
Murray, nonetheless, isn't concerned about that and emphasized that Jokic is in no way to blame for the defeat. Instead, he shared his belief that they simply didn't play to their usual standards against the Heat.
“No, I don't think it has anything to do with that. It's defense and discipline. Like I said, we've just got to have an all-around game,” Murray said of the Jokic scoring talks and their eventual loss.
“We can't just have spurts of second quarter good, end of the third good. We can't have spurts of good play. We've got to play all the way through, through ups and downs, stay together and play with intensity and energy, and I don't think we had that. We just piled them on, mistake after mistake, and weren't able to come back from that. Even when we were up, it felt like we were trying to climb back into the game just energy-wise and intensity-wise.”
Several fans and critics also pointed out how Nikola Jokic's passing was basically shut down by the Heat. The Serbian big man only had four assists in the 111-108 loss, which further amplified talks that the Joker's scoring isn't that impactful.
Murray defended his superstar teammate and shared that the lack of playmaking from Jokic wasn't a factor at all.
“He had 41 points. He's doing a lot. Yeah, he played a great game,” Murray added.
Sure enough, as Muray said, it's just wrong to sell that narrative that the Nuggets lose when Jokic acts selfishly and focuses on scoring. He's doing what he needs to do to lead Denver to wins, and on Sunday night, the shots just weren't falling for the team.
Game 3 is on Wednesday in Miami, and Jokic, Murray and the res of the team need to focus on just one thing: bouncing back.
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