Jamal Murray scored a season-high 45 points on Tuesday night to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 118-99 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Nuggets coach Michael Malone backed his star guard and said the scanner on Murray is sometimes more intense.
“I think the microscope on Jamal is a little intense,” Malone said “Everybody’s just got to kind let the kid breathe a little bit. He’s not perfect. And if you look, I think his overall stats as of recently, he’s been very good for us.”
Murray was able to hit the ground running on Tuesday, scoring 19 points in the opening quarter.
“Don’t take me out,” Murray said to Malone on a couple of occasions early in the game, both coming after he made 3-pointers.
Murray said he made the most of his sensational form after he received his backing from the head coach.
“You’re just in the zone and it’s fun,” said Murray, who finished 18-of-26 from the field and 5-of-9 from 3-point range while outscoring the Dallas starting lineup by a 45-39 margin. “Your team knows you’re in the zone. They’re trying to find you as well. The ball has energy and it was finding me today and I was just rolling, so I wasn’t looking into it too much. I was just flowing with the game and playing free.
“If I miss a shot or turn it over, it was on to the next play. And it’s nice to play just kind of free-minded, you know what I’m saying? Sometimes you can have so many negatives in the game where it just compounds from one player to another. And today it was just the opposite.”
Malone reckons Murray has been receiving a lot of heat after he bagged a whopping deal with the franchise.
“I think Jamal has been catching a lot of heat this year,” Malone said. “Jamal Murray didn’t pay himself $[52] million [per season]. We did that as an organization, because we believe in him.
“We don’t win our first franchise championship without Jamal Murray averaging 21, 10 and 6. You know what I mean? So I understand that everybody wants our guys to play perfect. Everybody wants us to be undefeated. Doesn’t happen like that. Every player goes through ups and downs. The most important thing for Jamal is to know that everybody in that locker room — coaches, players — has his back and we’re going to ride with him.”
The Nuggets will next face the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
