Jamal Murray shows Kentucky coach John Calipari his growth as Denver Nuggets beat Phoenix Suns in Game 5
May 10—A former coach had a front-row seat to check out Jamal Murray's final form on his basketball journey.
University of Kentucky coach John Calipari was seated courtside, next to Colorado Avalanche defensemen Cale Makar and Devon Toews, to see a showdown between two of his former stars. Murray helped the Nuggets to a 118-102 win and a 3-2 series lead over Devin Booker, another one-and-done phenom for the Wildcats, Tuesday at Ball Arena.
"That's my guy," Murray said of his college coach. "He knows what I've been through. He knows my game. He knows what I'm capable of."
Murray finished with 19 points on 7 of 15 shooting to go with six assists, five rebounds and a steal. His progress toward becoming something of a true point guard has been on display the last two games with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 13 to 2. The numbers tell a similar story. Murray's 6.2 assists in the regular season were a new career high. It was his first season averaging more than five assists per game. Through 10 playoff games this year, Murray is posting 6.8 assists per game.
"We think of him as a scorer," coach Michael Malone said of the consensus among the media and fans. "And he can score. He can score with the best of them, but sometimes the game dictates that you may need to be a playmaker. You may need to find the open man and make somebody else better. I think he's done a really good job of that these last two games."
Games 3 and 4 of the Nuggets' second-round series against the Suns have seen Murray start slow from a scoring perspective. He was 6 of 15 at halftime of Denver's loss Sunday in Phoenix but recorded five of his seven assists in the first half before his shot started to fall. Tuesday's game started similarly.
"I kind of base it off the way I'm playing sometimes. When I'm struggling in the first quarter like I did today, you know, I just try to run the offense, make sure everybody's in the right spots, get organized, set other guys up, let other guys make a play. I'm not trying to force it out there. I pick my spots. I've been doing that my whole career. I just try to put everybody in the right spot. Tonight, everybody played really well off the sets that we ran," Murray said.
"Sometimes that's just what the game calls for."
Calipari had Murray for his only college season in 2015-16 when he was roughly 80 percent of the way to becoming the point guard he is now. The year before, "Coach Cal" had another prodigious scorer, Devin Booker, who has topped or shared the team-high in points in four of the five games this series, in Lexington.
As the tallest kid on his youth teams, Murray started playing as a center. He kept moving down the lineup through the forward spots to shooting guard. He was more of a combo guard, capable of playing on or off the ball when the Nuggets selected him with the No. 7 pick of the 2016 NBA draft but has settled into Denver's primary point guard over the course of his seven seasons as a professional. Murray said he's maintained that post skill, something that was evident in the fourth quarter Tuesday.
After starting 4 of 11 from the field, the 6-foot-4 Murray got a matchup with Cam Payne, Phoenix's 6-1 guard starting in place of the injured Chris Paul. Sensing a mismatch on the left block, Booker left Bruce Brown to help Payne. Murray's shot fake got Booker off the ground and out of the play. He then stepped into a clean bank shot.
"I've been doing that my whole life, man. I grew up playing the '5,' because I was always taller than everybody. I played 5, 4, then the 3 to the 2 to the 1. My footwork is there," Murray said, citing Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dirk Nowitzki and Brandon Roy as the players he's borrowed from as he crafted his own post game.
"I take a lot of things from a lot of guys and try to do my own little touch to it. It's just fun to play with the feet, play with the fakes and get guys lifted sometimes."
Murray scored 17 of his points after halftime. After missing six of his first seven shots, Murray got into a rhythm with a couple of driving layups. He was assessed a technical foul following the second, as he taunted Landry Shamet after finishing inside, drawing a foul and completing a three-point play that put the Nuggets up 10 early in the third quarter.
"I'm just trying to get myself going sometimes. ... Sometimes I just need a little energy boost," Murray said.
"Once I'm in attack mode, then it kind of changes the game. It's nothing personal. I'm just playing the game. He's playing defense. He's trying to pressure me. He's trying to do his job. I'm trying to do mine as well. It's playoff basketball. There's nothing there."
Kentucky's coach played Tyler Ulis, another future NBA player, at the point. The Wildcats earned the No. 4 seed in the West regional, eventually losing to an Indiana squad that featured current teammate Thomas Bryant in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
"I was playing the '2,'" Murray said of his college days. "I wasn't even handling the ball like that, so I was teasing him about it. We could've been so much better if I was handling the ball a little bit."
