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Jamal Murray scored 21 fourth-quarter points and Nikola Jokic posted 21 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists as the Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs 114-105 in Game 2 of their NBA Western Conference first-round playoff series Tuesday.
Denver trailed 78-59 with 4:28 left in the third quarter. Murray then led the Nuggets on a furious charge and gave Denver a 101-99 lead with this shot:
Denver Nuggets @nuggets
The Blue Arrow puts us over the century mark!!
#MileHighBasketball https://t.co/4Y4tlZyHBE
After Spurs wing DeMar DeRozan hit two free throws to draw San Antonio within one, Murray assisted on a Jokic bucket before hitting back-to-back threes to put the game away:
Denver Nuggets @nuggets
JAMAL. MURRAY.
As Fantasy Labs managing director Justin Phan noted, Murray nearly outscored the Spurs, who had 23 fourth-quarter points, in the final 12 minutes.
DeRozan led all scorers with 31 points. Teammate LaMarcus Aldridge added 24 points and eight rebounds.
Denver and San Antonio are now tied at one game apiece in their best-of-seven series.
Jamal Murray Must Find Consistency for Nuggets to Maintain Success
Jokic might be the Nuggets’ best player, but the team can only go as far as Murray takes it.
Check out these stats from Harrison Wind of BSN Denver for example:
Harrison Wind @HarrisonWind
Jamal Murray had 3 points on 0-8 shooting through three quarters. He scored 21 in the fourth on 8-9 shooting. I’ve never witnessed anything like what just happened. Nuggets win 114-105. What?
Unsurprisingly, San Antonio outscored Denver by seven points in the first three quarters, but the Nuggets outpaced the Spurs 39-23 in the final 12 minutes.
The correlation between Murray’s shooting prowess and the team’s success has been a trend all season: The Nuggets are 12-0 when Murray shoots 55 percent or better from the field.
However, the Nuggets don’t look like a No. 2 seed when the ex-Kentucky star struggles from the field. When the 22-year-old hits 28.6 percent or fewer shots, they are just 5-7.
The question now is whether he can avoid the occasional rough shooting nights (e.g. going 8-of-23 in Game 1) that have dotted his season.
If history is any indication, Murray will have a tough time on the road in this series. The point guard has extreme home-away splits this year, making 47.5 percent of his field goals in Denver and 40.0 percent away from the Pepsi Center.
The problem is the Spurs have extreme home-away splits as well. San Antonio is an excellent 32-9 at home but a pedestrian 16-25 on the road. Similarly, Denver is 34-7 at home and just 20-21 on the road.
As ESPN analyst Ryen Russillo pointed out during Murray’s rough stretch Tuesday, the Spurs look like the favorite if Murray can’t get it going:
Russillo @ryenarussillo
If Jamal Murray is going to be this bad the Nuggets have no chance vs. the Spurs.
But if he does, then Murray isn’t much different than a player who catches fire in NBA Jam: He’ll hit everything. He’s capable of doing things that no one has done in years, as ESPN pointed out:
NBA on ESPN @ESPNNBA
Jamal Murray’s 21 points are the most by any player in the 4th quarter of a playoff game since Paul George in 2014! https://t.co/Vp4d01HoXo
Ultimately, Denver isn’t winning this series unless his shot falls more consistently. The Nuggets may have a championship-winning ceiling if it does, however.
San Antonio’s Resurgent D Key to Series Upset, Deep Playoff Run
The Spurs mostly played tremendous defense for the first 80 minutes of this series, but the last 16 will stick with San Antonio heading into Game 3.
San Antonio allowed 55 points during that stretch, including 39 in the fourth. Denver Nuggets not named Jokic committed only two turnovers (the big man had three in an otherwise stellar night). They shot 48.3 percent from the field and hit 10 of 24 threes.
That was a stark contrast from Game 1. Denver couldn’t get too much going offensively, shooting just 42.0 percent from the field and 21.4 percent from three.
It looked like more of the same after Game 2’s first quarter, when they scored just 21 points. The Nuggets also trailed 78-59 late in the fourth frame.
The Spurs’ Jekyll-and-Hyde defense is the key to this series and their playoff lives.
If the defense excels, a deep playoff run could be on the horizon.
If it struggles, then Denver should be moving on.
San Antonio’s defense looked like it had made a significant turnaround after a poor first half of the year. The Spurs ranked just 20th in defensive rating throughout the season, per NBA.com, but that figure jumped to a ninth-place tie after the All-Star break.
And with that, San Antonio improved down the stretch, going 15-8 (65.2 winning percentage) after a 33-26 mark (55.9 percent winning rate) before mid-February.
The offense has not been a problem thus far.
The Spurs have two perennial All-Stars in Aldridge and DeRozan, who average more than 20 points per game.
Point guard Derrick White, who wasn’t even in the rotation last year and was slated to be a reserve until Dejounte Murray suffered a torn ACL in the preseason, has shown the postseason stage is not too big for him. He’s averaged 16.5 points on 66.7 percent shooting.
San Antonio has one of the NBA’s better reserves in the efficient Rudy Gay, who has made more than half of his shot this season. And as a team, the Spurs are No. 1 in three-point percentage.
But the defense has been the team’s Achilles’ heel. The Spurs were in the bottom half of the league in field-goal defense and three-point defense. They’ve also given up loads of points in some games and notably allowed 130 to a New York Knicks team that finished 17-65.
So what needs to change?
First, the Spurs have to defend better in transition. Paul Garcia of Project Spurs noted the Game 2 damage:
Paul Garcia @PaulGarciaNBA
After scoring 0 fast break points in Game 1, the Nuggets scored 21 in Game 2.
That’s 7 more fast break points than the Spurs usually allow the opponent.
Second, San Antonio needs to prevent open threes as much as possible. The defense seemed a little late here on this Malik Beasley three, for example:
Third, the Spurs have to find a way to stop Paul Millsap. Nick Kosmider of The Athletic noted how he was doing work in the post:
Millsap finished with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
If Murray gets hot, there’s nothing much one can do to stop him. And Jokic is one of the best and most versatile players in the league, so the same goes for him. The key is for the Spurs to take care of business in other areas, and that could make the difference between an early playoff exit and a deep playoff run.
What’s Next?
The Spurs will host the Nuggets for Game 3 on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.
from Daily Trends Hunter http://bit.ly/2Im12VT
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