Tag: Jamal Murray

Rockets reaction: Depth issues, defensive lapses costly versus Jokic, Nuggets

Nikola Jokic had 19 points, 18 assists, and 12 rebounds as the Nuggets picked apart the shorthanded Rockets in a commanding home victory.

For the undermanned Rockets, who are missing four expected rotation players due to COVID-19 issues, winning at Denver was always going to be a tall order. Led by a dominant showing of 19 points (73% FG), 18 assists, and 12 rebounds from All-Star center Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets routed Houston, 124-111 (box score) in the “Mile High City.”

James Harden led Houston with 34 points and eight assists in just 31 minutes, making 10-of-16 shots (62.5%) from the field. Meanwhile, center Christian Wood followed up 31 points and 13 rebounds in Saturday’s debut at Portland with 23 points (45% FG) and two blocks against the Nuggets. But they didn’t have nearly enough help on Monday night.

For a second straight game to open the 2020-21 regular season, the Rockets had only nine active players — just one above the NBA’s minimum requirement of eight to play a game. Facing a Denver squad led by Jokic and Jamal Murray and coming off a Western Conference Finals berth, it was a tough task for Houston — especially with a short rotation and on a second road game in three nights, and at high altitude. The Nuggets (1-2) were desperate for a win after unexpectedly losing their first two games of the  season, and it showed in their inspired play.

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The good news for the Rockets (0-2), from a wins and losses perspective, is that three of the four key absences (John Wall, Eric Gordon, and DeMarcus Cousins) are expected back in time for Houston’s next game on Thursday. Ben McLemore, who reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus, could take a few extra days. Reinforcements are on the way.

In the meantime, though, the Rockets are frustrated by their 0-2 start — especially given some of the early defensive issues. Here’s a sampling of the responses from Monday’s postgame interviews.

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Rockets at Nuggets: Betting odds, point spread for Monday night

Denver (0-2) is favored by 6.5 points against the shorthanded Rockets (0-1), who will be playing their second road game in three nights.

The Rockets visit the Denver Nuggets on Monday night in the second game of the NBA’s 2020-21 regular season for Houston. If you’re looking to do some last-minute betting research, you’re in luck! We have the latest point spread, moneyline odds, and over-under number, as well as the information you’ll need to make the smartest bet on BetMGM.

The Rockets remain very shorthanded, with six players again unavailable due to either positive tests for COVID-19 (Ben McLemore, KJ Martin Jr.) or from contact tracing after possible exposure (John Wall, Eric Gordon, DeMarcus Cousins, Mason Jones). In all, Houston should have nine active players, just one above the minimum of eight needed to play.

Available players include guards James Harden, David Nwaba, Sterling Brown, and Brodric Thomas; forwards Danuel House Jr., PJ Tucker, and Jae’Sean Tate; and centers Christian Wood and Bruno Caboclo.

Monday’s tipoff is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Central, with the game shown in usual Houston markets on AT&T SportsNet Southwest. Led by rising young stars such as center Nikola Jokic, guard Jamal Murray, and forward Michael Porter Jr., the Nuggets (0-2) are still seeking their first win of the 2020-21 regular season, as are the Rockets (0-1).

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Denver (46-27) and Houston (44-28) finished No. 3 and No. 4 in the Western Conference last year, so both teams expect to turn around their slow starts to the new season in short order. Of the three combined losses by the Nuggets and Rockets in recent days, two of them (Denver to Sacramento, and Houston to Portland) came in the final seconds.

The lines, courtesy of BetMGM

  • Point spread: Nuggets -6.5 (-110)
  • Moneyline: Rockets +220/Blazers -275
  • Over-under: 222.5 (-110)
  • Player O/U Scoring Props: James Harden 32.5 (-105 O, -120 U), Christian Wood 22.5 (-125 O, +100 U); Nikola Jokic 22.5 (-120 O, -105 U), Jamal Murray 21.5 (-115 O, -105 U)

Place your legal, online sports bets in CO, IN, MI, NV, NJ, PA, TN, and WV at BetMGM.

Advice and prediction

The point spread is tricky. While the Rockets showed promising signs in their narrow overtime loss at Portland, they remain very shorthanded and will be playing in high altitude for their second road game in three nights. That could cause Houston’s nine-man roster to wear down, especially with two key veterans (Harden, Tucker) having missed large chunks of training camp. Peak fitness is likely still a ways away for this group.

The best bet could be for Wood, who scored 31 against the Blazers, to go over his 22.5 points total. At 25 years old and with the benefit of a full training camp, he should be fresher than many of the veterans.

An athletic 6-foot-10 big man, Wood has sparked comparisons to former Rockets center Clint Capela, who often ran circles around the slow-footed Jokic. Unlike Capela, though, Wood also combines his gifts as a roll man with perimeter shooting touch. For a weary and shorthanded Houston squad, Wood’s energy could lead to plenty of scoring chances.

Prediction: 116-108, Nuggets

Get more betting analysis and predictions at Sportsbook Wire.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship, and there is no influence on news coverage.

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Kentucky coach John Calipari compared Tyrese Maxey to Jamal Murray

Calipari saw similarities between Maxey and Murray due to their abilities on both ends of the floor.

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On Thursday, projected first-round Tyrese Maxey participated in the Klutch Sports Group Pro Day in Los Angeles with Anthony Edwards, an event that had LeBron James, Anthony Davis and other clientele of Rich Paul in attendance.

Maxey went through several on-court drills throughout the workout, which was televised on ESPN2. In one sequence, the former Kentucky guard got particularly hot from 3-point range and was locked in. Of course, a 1-on-0 workout is hardly beneficial to teams but Maxey showed off his improved game.

During the segment, Kentucky head coach John Calipari spoke on the broadcast about his former player. Calipari compared Maxey to Jamal Murray, who played at Kentucky during the 2015-16 season, due to his ability on both sides of the ball and his hustle on every play.

Tyrese Maxey reminded of Jamal Murray. Jamal is a little bit bigger, probably 6-foot-5 but the same kind of player — on the ball, off the ball, fight to defend, deflect balls, rebounds above the rim. I laugh, every day I walked in the kid had a smile on his face. It’s a spirit about him of what he could do. You look at him, what you see, where you think he could be, he goes.

Our kids here are not pigeon-holed into one position; they’re taught basketball. When you watch him, how he shoots it, his runners, his handle, his physicalness, if anybody passes on him in a certain range, it’s kinda like gonna be the Jamal thing; he’s going to be that guy.

Maxey averaged 14 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 31 games played last season with the Wildcats, earning Second Team All-SEC honors in the process. He is projected to be a lottery pick given his ability to impact games on both ends of the floor.

The New York Knicks are said to be interested in Maxey, according to a recent report. The Knicks have been rumored into wanting to trade down into the middle of the first round in the draft, and if they did, they would target Maxey.

In all likelihood, Maxey will be taken by the middle of the first round but if he slips further than that, a team could potentially be getting a steal given his potential in the backcourt.

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Nuggets’ Jamal Murray names Steph Curry as his hardest player to guard in the NBA

When asked who is his hardest player to guard in the NBA, Jamal Murray landed on Golden State’s two-time Most Valuable Player Steph Curry.

During the NBA’s run through the Orlando Bubble, Jamal Murray solidified himself as one of the league’s rising stars. The Kentucky product helped lead the Denver Nuggets past the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers in the postseason despite falling down 3-1 in each series.

Over 19 games in the 2020 playoffs, Murray averaged 26.5 points on 50.5% shooting from the field with 6.6 assists and 4.8 rebounds per contest. During the Disney World postseason, Nuggets wing shot 45.3% from beyond the arc on 7.2 long-distance attempts.

In the Nuggets’ game seven tilt against Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the Clippers, the 23-year-old exploded for 40 points on 15-of-26 shooting from the field with six 3-pointers.

After being eliminated by the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, Murray joined Ashley Nevel for an interview on YouTube. During his conversation with Nevel, the 23-year-old revealed his toughest matchup to line up against the in the NBA. Murray listed a pair of reasons why Stephen Curry is his hardest player to guard in the NBA.

Via Ashley Nevel on YouTube:

Steph [Curry] is really hard to guard. One, because of his shot. Two, because you don’t know what he’s going to do. You don’t know if he’s just going to pull it. You don’t know if he’s going to just end up going by you — he’s going to cross you over six times and then shoot and look away. You have absolutely no clue what he’s going to do. I would have to go with him.

Watch Nevel’s full interview with Murray here.

Through Murray’s career, the Nuggets have lined up against Curry and the Golden State Warriors 10 times. During that span, the two-time Most Valuable Player registered 30 points in four contests. The Warriors hold a 7-3 record against the Nuggets since Denver drafted Murray in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft.

With the six-time All-Star ready to return to Steve Kerr’s rotation in 2020-21, the Warriors are expected to make a run back to the postseason. After their streak to the Conference Finals in 2020, Curry and Golden State will have to go through Murray, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in the mission back to the top of the West.

Lakers look to advance to NBA Finals vs. Nuggets in Game 5: How To Watch

The Los Angeles Lakers are one win away from getting to the NBA Finals, but the closeout is always the toughest game of a series.

LeBron James is one win away from helping the Los Angeles Lakers get back to the NBA Finals and one win away from making his ninth trip to the NBA Finals in 10 seasons. However, the team standing in their way is one that is uniquely comfortable in these positions in the Denver Nuggets.

The Nuggets are the only team in NBA History to come back from a 3-1 deficit twice in a single postseason. And as the Lakers know very well, closeout games are typically the toughest games of a series.

How To Watch

Time: 6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern

Channel: TNT (All games of the Western Conference Finals will be on TNT), ESPN Radio (check your local affiliates)

Spread via BetMGM: Lakers -5 (the line has gone down every game)

Key Injuries: Anthony Davis (ankle) is listed as questionable

The Nuggets have been strong in elimination games as well over the last two years of the Jokic-Murray era, going 7-1 in those scenarios over the last two postseasons.

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LeBron James was clutch down the stretch of Game 4 on defense

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James was crucial on the defensive end in Thursday night’s Game 4 win over the Nuggets.

The 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers have had a few defining characteristics in their journey towards the franchise’s first NBA Finals in over a decade. No. 1, their star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis is the best in the league. But No. 2 is the consistent greatness of the defense displayed by the Los Angeles Lakers throughout the season. And one of the more unexpected aspects has been elite has been a defensive renaissance of LeBron James as an elite force on the defensive end. No moment has captured that more than LeBron’s defense in the 4th quarter of last night’s Game 4 win to put the Lakers up 3-1.

According to tracking from Second Spectrum, the Nuggets were 0-for-6 when LeBron was the closest defender within six feet.

Synergy Sports, another tracking service, we can track five shots in which James was playing defense and it ended in a Nuggets miss. A flailing floater by Mason Plumlee, a close-out on a missed 3-pointer, a Jamal Murray turnover, and two misses by Murray.

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LeBron James’ clutch defense on Jamal Murray saved the Lakers in Game 4

An incredible performance down the stretch.

Jamal Murray’s ascent to superstardom has meant it’s time for opposing teams to respect him on their defensive end.

And on Thursday night, with the Los Angeles Lakers facing a possible 2-2 series against the Denver Nuggets, it was LeBron James of all players who stepped up and volunteered to bottle up Murray down the stretch in Game 4.

That’s a 35-year-old 6-foot-9 small forward volunteering to blanket a 23-year-old quick 6-foot-4 guard.

And it worked. That’s also what superstars do.

It was something James volunteered for, per Lakers coach Frank Vogel, who said he granted the request to defend Murray late in the fourth quarter.

It led to plays like this (and some people think this was a foul, but I don’t):

The numbers don’t lie:

This should go down along with The Block as one of his all-time best defensive moments. Remember: this is the same James who has sometimes found times in games to slow down on defense in order to get his energy right for when it’s needed the most. But we’ve seen that when he’s needed to be clutch on the other end of the floor, he answers the call, just like he did in Game 3 against the Rockets.

Instead of a 2-2 series against a young, feisty and incredibly talented Nuggets team, the Lakers have a 3-1 lead. And although Denver now has to face a THIRD straight series coming back down 3-1 this postseason, there’s one stat that stands out about James:

That’s how huge his defense on Murray really was.

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Jamal Murray’s Michael Jordan-like layup had NBA fans in awe

Jamal Murray looked like Michael Jordan on this layup.

Usually there’s nothing too exciting or awe-inspiring about a made layup in the NBA. People getting dunked on is a lot more fun.

But that changed during Thursday night’s Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers when Nuggets star Jamal Murray had a layup that had everyone wondering what they just saw. It also looked like that classic layup by Michael Jordan against the Lakers in the Finals years ago.

Murray took the ball down the lane and then did a nifty up-and-under move that got him past LeBron James. Then he spun the ball off the backboard and in the hoop for an incredible bucket.

I mean, check this out:

Wow.

NBA Twitter couldn’t believe it:

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Lakers need to clean up sloppy defense vs. Nuggets to win in Game 4

The Los Angeles Lakers have been a great team on defense all season but the Denver Nuggets are putting them in interesting situations.

When the Los Angeles Lakers turned on the jets and worked their way back from a 20-point deficit to cut the Denver Nuggets lead to three points in the fourth quarter, they did it in large part thanks to their defense. But in the other three quarters, their defense was littered with poorly executed double-teams, lazy switches, and ball-watching that got the Nuggets a bevy of easy buckets to build their lead to 20 points. For the Lakers to win in Game 4, they have to be better in their defensive execution, even in the zone that helped them towards the end of Game 4.

The Lakers were frequently switching anything involving Nikola Jokic. But in switching back or trying to get the defense in a stronger position, they would make awful mistakes that led to wide-open shots for the Nuggets, like this corner 3 from Monte Morris created by a poorly communicated switch back involving Markieff Morris.

Including the poor switches, we also saw some odd choices from the Lakers when going for a trap or a double-team. Nikola Jokic has been getting occasional doubles when not guarded by Anthony Davis, which is understandable and the same goes for Murray. But trapping Gary Harris in the corner?

Harris’ offense has bounced back in these playoffs, but what is Anthony Davis doing here? The Lakers were aggressive defensively in their rally, but this was a clear mistake. But whether it’s ones like the open Morris 3-pointer, or this overhelp from Davis opening up a driving lane for Grant to hit an important runner to help put the game away, the Lakers Game 3 performance was littered with mistakes the Nuggets never failed to take advantage of.

The Lakers need to clean up the sloppiness or Jokic, Murray and the young Nuggets will even this series back up.

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Lakers look to take one step closer to NBA Finals: How To Watch

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers had their first loss in six games in Tuesday night’s Game 3 loss.

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers know they are one Anthony Davis shot away from being in a completely different position, but they don’t need to concern themselves with other realities. They are one win away from taking a commanding 3-1 lead against the Denver Nuggets. And while the Nuggets are the only team in NBA history to come back from down 3-1 twice in a single postseason, the odds of them reeling off three straight 3-1 comebacks might be too much, even for them.

The Lakers flipped the script in this series, coming out with a strong Game 1 followed by two straight games where they didn’t play up to standard. The Nuggets, to their credit, have gotten quality shots offensively and also worked harder to get back on defense, slowing down the Lakers transition attack.

How To Watch

Time: 6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern

Channel: TNT (All games of the Western Conference Finals will be on TNT), ESPN Radio (check your local affiliates)

Spread via BetMGM: Lakers -6

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