On Sunday, the Nuggets went into Houston and pulled off a huge upset against the Rockets, a team that Denver is now one game behind in the Western Conference standings.
The biggest surprise was that they did so without superstar Nikola Jokic, who missed his 4th consecutive game due to a mixture of injuries.
Jamal Murray went off for 39 points, and punished Houston defenders with an array of floaters, fade-away jumpers, and crafty passes. Murray looked aggressive from the get-go and showed zero hesitation in shooting off the dribble, or launching catch and shoot 3’s off of designed screens.
The fact that Murray was capable of lifting the Nuggets in this spot, without the best player in the world suiting up, was a major positive. This Murray performance was an important reminder that he is the guy who raises the Nuggets ceiling, even though Jokic is obviously the best player.
Why the Nuggets need this version of Murray in the playoffs
This Nuggets team has its issues, as they don't have the depth, defense, or shooting from the past two years. As a result, their room for error is incredibly low, and they need everything to go right to win the West.
While the Nuggets need to be healthy, they also need everyone to play to their potential. In the only two deep playoff runs of the Jokic era, Jamal Murray played like a bonafide superstar.
Murray is currently producing the best regular season of his career. After another slow start, he has been absolutely on fire for the past two months.
When Murray is scoring at will, and you have to account for Jokic, the Nuggets have proven to be nearly unbeatable, regardless of how many holes the rest of the roster has. This proved to be true for the first time nearly five years ago.
Bubble Murray
The Nuggets aren't going to be able to replicate the run they made in 2023. They lack the shooting, depth, and defense to do so. That being said, perhaps the script for this year's is similar to the magical run the Nuggets made in the 2020 Orlando bubble. The reason I reference the bubble run here is simple.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves are two teams who both have better top-to-bottom rosters than Denver does right now. However, in the 2020 playoffs, the Utah Jazz and LA Clippers arguably had better overall rosters than Denver, yet the Nuggets still found a way to beat both teams in dramatic fashion, despite being down three games to one in both series.
"Bubble Murray" was the main reason Denver didn't go out with a whimper against the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2020 playoffs. His consecutive 50 point outings in games 5-6 of that series injected life into a team that looked dead in the water.
Versus the Clippers, Murray got hot again towards the end of the series, and dropped a 40 burger in Game 7 to help Jokic put the Clippers to bed.
The Nuggets didn’t have an elite supporting cast compared to the other teams they were playing that year. Michael Porter Jr. was inexperienced and almost unplayable on defense, Paul Millsap was aging rapidly, and Gary Harris only averaged seven points per game. Jerami Grant was probably their third best player, and he only averaged 11.6 points per game.
Despite this, they still made a deep playoff run, and I think they performed like the second best playoff team that year after the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.
Murray’s responsibilities
To be totally honest, I got a bit tired of the phrase "Bubble Murray." Before the Nuggets 2023 title, people used it in a way to make his legendary 2020 playoff run sound flukey, like a one hit wonder.
However, I think Bubble Murray is still the best version of Murray we’ve ever seen. While his '23 run was just as impressive statistically, and arguably more consistent, the 2023 Nuggets had a lot more players to rely on if Murray had an off game, and he shouldered a much bigger load in the bubble.
Moving forward, he’s going to have to shoulder a similar load. Nikola Jokic is going to be Nikola Jokic, and the Nuggets' deficiencies are what they are. But If the Nuggets are going to make another run at the title, they’ll need to rely on a ton of blue arrows.