Tag: Jamal Murray

Season leaps: This is where players have improved the most this year

Before he signed with the Detroit Pistons, no one would have ever expected Jerami Grant to be so good at creating for himself.

Every year, it is fascinating to track the incredible progress that players around the league have made during their most recent offseason.

Considering that the NBA is home to some of the best athletes in the world, it’s always remarkable to see how these world-class find ways to get better and develop their games.

The league clearly loves it, too, and celebrated these accomplishments by introducing the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award (MIP) back in 1985.

Earlier this season, we have written about the impressive strides we have seen from 2020-21 MIP candidates Julius Randle (playmaking) and Jordan Clarkson (shot selection and efficiency) thus far. We have also highlighted the most improved players on each team, including first-time All-Stars Zach LaVine and Jaylen Brown.

But we wanted to highlight some of the ways that certain individuals have gotten better at distinct elements of their game since last season as well.

3 observations: Jamal Murray, Nuggets suffocate Sixers in Mile High

Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets put on a big effort in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Philadelphia 76ers were looking to bounce back from their first loss of the road trip, but they were caught up in the altitude and they fell to the Denver Nuggets 104-95 for a second straight loss. Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. combined for 57 points on the night and Philadelphia could not stop them in the Mile High City.

The Sixers just seemed like they were not able to get into a rhythm on either end of the floor and Denver took advantage. They were not able to string together any defensive stops and they also struggled on the offensive end of the floor.

Tyrese Maxey had 13 points to lead Philadelphia, Tobias Harris had 12 points, Ben Simmons had 11, Dwight Howard had 10 points and seven rebounds, Shake Milton had 10, and Mike Scott had nine points and 7 rebounds.

Here are the three observations in this one:

NBA trade deadline: Projected rotation for Nuggets with Aaron Gordon

After earning a spot in the 2020 Western Conference Finals, the Denver Nuggets made a huge splash during the 2021 NBA trade deadline.

After earning a spot in the 2020 Western Conference Finals, the Denver Nuggets made a huge splash during the 2021 NBA trade deadline.

Hungry to build on the success they had last season, Denver’s front office made a push to land Aaron Gordon from the Orlando Magic as well as two-time NBA champion JaVale McGee from the Cleveland Cavaliers. They also acquired Gary Clark, a sneaky good role player, to the mix.

While the organization surrendered longtime starter Gary Harris as well as promising prospect RJ Hampton in the deal, they maintained much of the depth necessary to make another run in the postseason later this year.

Denver came into the season with some excellent star power behind MVP candidate Nikola Jokic and a stellar guard in Jamal Murray. They maintain excellent upside with the firepower of Michael Porter Jr. as well.

With all three on the floor, the Nuggets have outscored opponents by 13.1 points per 100 possessions this year. That ranks as the second-best among three-man groups in the Western Conference that have played at least 600 minutes together thus far in 2020-21.

But they also have Will Barton, Paul Millsap and Monte Morris – all of whom are reliable veterans who play well within their roles. So when you add Gordon and McGee to that already strong core, you suddenly have one of the deepest rosters in the NBA.

As such, below, we have broken down the new group for the Nuggets as they prepare to make a playoff push.

The league is moving more and more towards positionless basketball. Note that we define “guards” as the playmakers and primary initiators, “wings” as the versatile athletes who can typically play somewhere between two through four and “bigs” as the main frontcourt threat.

OKC falls behind early as Denver cruises to a 126-96 win

The Thunder start slow and can’t recover vs Denver

For the 2020-2021 OKC Thunder, there haven’t been many starts like the one they had at home tonight. Despite a 14-20 record, the young Thunder have hung around against the NBA’s best, specifically with solid first-half performances. On Saturday night, they looked the part of a team on the second night of a back-to-back.

Tonight, the script was different. Denver (18-15) jumped on the Thunder out of the gate and took a 38-20 first quarter lead that they would never give up. The first three minutes and change saw the Nuggets put together a 13-0 run to build the lead they would hold all night. It was the usual suspects leading the way with Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and Michael Porter Jr. finishing as the three leading scorers in limited minutes due to a blowout win.

All the Thunder could do after a slow start was try to get back in the game from behind the three-point line. Oklahoma City attempted a whopping 47 threes, making only 11. Compare that to Denver going 15-31 (48.4%) from distance, and you have a key difference on Saturday night. Despite the starting lineup struggling, second-year pro Darius Bazley had one of his better offensive nights of the year. Despite struggling with his efficiency this season, he went 8-16 from the floor to lead the way with 22 points.

Off the pine, Ty Jerome made the most of his second game healthy in OKC. After suffering an ankle injury in camp, Jerome finally made his Thunder debut on Friday and picked up where he left off in tonight’s loss. 15 pints and three made threes for the former Suns draft pick was one of the highlights on a night filled with lows.

The Thunder finally get some extended time off, as up next they travel to Dallas for a Wednesday night matchup

Who’s really to blame on the Nuggets’ awful final possession against the Wizards? A breakdown

Breaking down who was at fault on the Nuggets’ failed final possession against the Wizards.

The Nuggets’ 112-110 loss to the Wizards on Thursday night was always going to be a bad loss.

But it wasn’t just the fact that it was a loss. It was the way that they lost that really makes this bad. The Nuggets had a 4-on-1 fastbreak at the end of the game with the opportunity to tie — and maybe even win — in the final seconds.

Jamal Murray brought the ball down on the break with Michael Porter Jr., Monte Morris and Facu Campazzo all running with him. Instead of getting a bucket out of this golden opportunity, they did this.

Campazzo ended the game with a really weird 3-point attempt that clanked off of the rim. And now, all everyone is talking about is who’s to blame for Denver squandering this opportunity.

Here’s how it all breaks down.

Trae Young, Devin Booker and the complete list of 2021 NBA All-Star Game snubs

The fact that all these players were left off shows us just how much talent is in the NBA right now.

While there is no exact science to an NBA All-Star candidacy, earning a spot among the league’s best players is always a tough challenge.

The 10 starters (five players from each conference) were selected based on weighted voting from fans, current NBA players and a media panel. The reserves (seven players from each conference) were chosen by head coaches around the league.

All-Star captains LeBron James and Kevin Durant will choose their teams from the player pool during the 2021 NBA All-Star Draft on March 4.

Ultimately, however, only 24 players earned the invitation to participate in the game on March 7. Given how many deserved consideration, there are still several others who made a serious case to receive the honor as well.

Below are some of the candidates who did not receive the nod but are still enjoying All-Star caliber campaigns. The fact that all these players were left off shows us just how much incredible talent exists in the NBA right now.

Jamal Murray made some wild NBA history with his 50-point game

What a game.

Jamal Murray could not be stopped against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Nuggets’ star scored a regular season career-high 50 points.

But that wasn’t the jaw-dropping part of the night. Yes, 50 points is always going to be impressive. But it wasn’t just the 50 points. It was actually how he got the 50 points that made it so much more impressive.

He dropped 50 without shooting a single free throw in the game. Not one. He didn’t get to the line one time. This means that he just made tough bucket after tough bucket after tough bucket.

You can see the degree of difficulty in some of these shots. This was not easy, by any means. And Murray still goes off.

And to do this without shooting a free throw? Man. It’s one of the wildest scoring accomplishments we’ve ever seen.

It’s literally the only time we’ve ever seen this in NBA history. He’s the first player in league history to score 50 points without shooting a free throw.

He broke the record of 48 points with no free throw held by Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Hakeem Olajuwon.

On top of that, he’s one of two players to score 50 points now and shoot at least 84% from the floor after making 21 of 25 shots. The only other guy to do that? Wilt Chamberlain. Fam.

Anytime your name and Wilt’s name go into the same sentence, you’ve probably had an all-time great night. Sheesh. What a game from Murray.

https://youtu.be/e2ocoIZSIyY

Lakers vs. Nuggets: Lineups, injury reports and broadcast info for Thursday

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets face-off in a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals.

The Los Angeles Lakers are finally back home after a nearly two-week road trip that took them all over the Eastern Conference. Now that they are back in Los Angeles, the Lakers get the treat of facing off against one of the hottest teams in the NBA and their rivals from last year’s Western Conference Finals, the Denver Nuggets.

After struggling to win games early in the season, the Nuggets have finally started to string some wins together over the past month and again find themselves in the thick of things in the Western Conference, three games back of the Lakers in 4th place in the West.

The biggest reason why the Nuggets are back in the mix in the West has been the MVP-level play of Nikola Jokic, who along with Joel Embiid is one of the contenders for the award along with LeBron James. After snapping the Utah Jazz big win streak on Sunday with 47 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists, Jokic has an opportunity to put together another statement game tonight against the Lakers on national television.

Here’s when you should tune in to see the game:

Injury report:

PJ Dozier, Gary Harris and Greg Whittington are out for the Nuggets. Jared Dudley and Kostas Antetokounmpo are out for the Lakers.

Denver Nuggets (12-8)

  • Paul Millsap
  • Will Barton
  • Nikola Jokic
  • Monte Morris
  • Jamal Murray

Los Angeles Lakers (16-6)

  • LeBron James
  • Anthony Davis
  • Marc Gasol
  • Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
  • Dennis Schröder

This post originally appeared on LeBron Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

[vertical-gallery id=37668]

If Michael Porter Jr. keeps playing like this, the NBA is in trouble

The Denver Nuggets made it to the 2020 Western Conference Finals, though the emergence of Michael Porter Jr. raises their ceiling even more.

The Denver Nuggets made it to the 2020 Western Conference Finals, yet the emergence of Michael Porter Jr. raises their ceiling even more.

Denver, of course, already has an MVP frontrunner and all-world contributor in Nikola Jokic. Their backcourt is in a good position under Jamal Murray, a developing young scorer who has averaged at least 16.7 points per game in each of his professional seasons since becoming a full-time starter.

Porter, however, is the one who made headlines on Monday after defeating the Dallas Mavericks. Despite coming off the bench, he scored 30 points in just 27 minutes of action. While he has appeared in only seven games so far this season, that marks the second time he had reached the 30-point mark in 2020-21.

Even though it is still a limited sample size, Porter has averaged 1.32 points per possession so far this season. That ranks as the best mark (minimum: 45 possessions) among all players in the Western Conference.

One encouraging takeaway is that his turnover percentage is down from his rookie season (11.5 percent) to now (7.2 percent).

But the main reason why he is so successful is that Porter has a dynamic tool kit of ways he can beat his defender. Approximately half of his field-goal attempts are three-pointers, 30 percent have at the rim and 21 percent are from midrange. That makes him a triple-threat as a scorer, which is one of the most coveted traits for an emerging star.

The 22-year-old forward is shooting 47.7 percent on his three-pointers (94th percentile among players at his position) and 55.5 percent (93rd percentile) from midrange, via Cleaning the Glass. His jumper looks effortless and also sustainable as he continues his career.

One of the more noticeable differences is that he is hitting his shots from the corners more often. He connected on 0.7 corner three-pointers per 36 minutes last season, shooting 43.6 percent from that area of the floor. But this season, that has increased to 1.3 three-pointers from the corner per 36 while shooting 58.3 percent on these attempts.

Considering how closely defenders have to guard Jokic and Murray, there will be a lot of opportunities for Porter if he waits in the corner. Jokic does not have to worry about whether or not Porter will sink these jumpers.

Jokic, who currently leads the league in assists, is averaging 8.5 assists per 36 during the 461 minutes he has played without Porter. But during the time that he has had with Porter alongside him, he is averaging 12.2 assists per 36.

The more often that Porter makes these looks after passes from Jokic, the more often opponents will have to close out on him. If they have to play him closer and collapse onto him, Jokic and Murray could possibly come away with more open looks.

Easy buckets are few and far between in the NBA but the Nuggets have a very unique offense. When they have their best five players on the court, everyone on the floor can shoot. This creates better spacing than rival teams.

For example, Utah needs Rudy Gobert to live in the dunker spot to complete for lobs and easy putbacks. While the opposing big waits next to Gobert, they can switch on to someone who is driving to the rack. But if the other five has to stay attached to Jokic on the perimeter, there may be a more open driving lane for a nimble, 6-foot-10 force like Porter.

As such, it is no surprise that Porter has gotten better when he is attacking the basket, improving his field goal percentage at the rim from 66.9 percent last season to 72.0 percent so far this year. Porter, who has a 7-foot wingspan, is currently 9-for-11 (81.2 percent) when cutting to the basket, per Synergy.

Put it all together and you can see hints of what could be when these three players are all playing their top-tier basketball.

[lawrence-related id=1418250]

Lu Dort wins matchup with Jamal Murray but Thunder blown out by Nuggets

OKC Thunder guard Lu Dort got the better of Jamal Murray, but the Denver Nuggets ran all over Oklahoma City.

You’ve heard this before: Oklahoma City Thunder guard Lu Dort had a stellar night defensively. In a question posed to head coach Mark Daigneault, the reporter mentioned that this topic might be getting repetitive in postgame interviews. Daigneault isn’t getting tired of it.

“It’s not a broken record in that it’s really hard to do every night. It’s hard to play well every night, it’s hard to compete every night as it is, and then Murray is a great player,” Daigneault said.

“You’re at the bottom of the mountain every night as a team and also when you’re guarding guys like that. The will that he has to be at the bottom of the mountain against the best players on the other team, and to compete the way he does … it’s really a tone-setter for us.”

But it wasn’t just Dort’s defensive performance against Murray, who scored just five points on 2-for-10 shooting and didn’t hit a single 3, that makes this game stand out.

Dort … is looking like a legitimate two-way player? Are we officially at the point of the season in which we can say he’s a 3-and-D wing, not just a defender?

Dort had a team-high 20 points, second-most in the game behind only Nikola Jokic’s 27, and shot 8-for-11 from the field. He made three 3s, extending his team lead in that category.

If someone had told you before tipoff that the Nuggets would win by 18 and told you to guess which player between Murray or Dort scored 20 and which scored five, it would feel like an easy guess.

But that wasn’t the case on Tuesday, with Dort outplaying Murray on both ends of the court.

However, that does bring us to the actual score, the 119-101 beating Oklahoma City took at the hands of the Nuggets. There’s no more optimism in this piece. There’s no sugarcoating it: This wasn’t a close game.

The Thunder played well through about a quarter and a half, but a 12-3 run by the Nuggets late in the second quarter put them ahead by double-digits going into halftime. In the third, Denver outscored Oklahoma City by 10 more points, which gave the Nuggets a 23-point lead heading into the final frame. From there, it was garbage time.

“Tonight they were the better team. Offensively and defensively,” said guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 14 points on 5-for-11 shooting. “We didn’t put enough pressure on them on both ends of the floor to get a W. That’s just what it came down to.”

The Thunder’s biggest issues were rebounding and turnovers. The Nuggets had 17 more boards than the Thunder and scored 28 points off 19 OKC turnovers.

The blowouts are starting to pile up for the Thunder.

That three-game win streak feels like a long time ago after this past week. After losing a relatively close game to the San Antonio Spurs, the Thunder got crushed by the Los Angeles Lakers. They then fell behind by 22 points to the Chicago Bulls before somehow pulling out a victory.

The Nuggets are not the Bulls. You fall behind Denver by 20 points, you’re probably not catching up.

It’s too soon to say the magic is over, but the Thunder haven’t had a full strong game since the win over the Brooklyn Nets. The Lakers loss as an isolated incident would be no issue, given that Los Angeles is the defending champion and even better than last season. But having it after the double-digit loss to the Spurs, following it with the first three quarters against the Bulls and then getting beaten down by a Nuggets team that entered the night 6-7, there have been a concerning number of uncompetitive quarters, halves and games over this eight-day period.

It’s not going to get easier over the next week. With two games against the Los Angeles Clippers, one against the Portland Trail Blazers and one against the Phoenix Suns on this road trip, there isn’t a game against a non-playoff contender on the horizon. Oklahoma City will have to step up and, to use one of Daigneault’s favorite clichés, play the full 48 minutes like a winning team.

If they can’t, the Western Conference playoff and play-in spots may fall out of reach quicker than anticipated.