MINNEAPOLIS – The face of the Nuggets’ most impressive win of the season wore orange sherbet and raspberry kicks and a black hat.
Jamal Murray stepped onto the Target Center court to thunderous boos and embraced the role of the villain. After throwing a towel Monday, Murray refused to throw in the towel Friday.
He embarrassed the organization with his actions and his lack of accountability following Game 2. But hidden behind the cloak of denial was an outlaw ready to bellow Folsom Prison Blues.
Murray was not Johnny Cash. He was simply Money. And precisely when his team needed him most.
“It just makes you have to lock in. It makes you better. I embraced that challenge,” Murray said. “I probably deserved the boos. I am not shying away from it. It was a lot of fun to have that kind of game for my teammates.”
The postseason’s best closer flipped the script with a Fast and Curious start. He wanted the moment, the days off returning burst to his left calf that did not tighten up until the fourth quarter. With four minutes remaining in the first, Murray sank an 18-footer. A few possessions later, he executed a fall away, giving the Nuggets a 23-19 lead. The score was not as important as Murray’s reaction. He rubbed his hands together, hardly a coincidence, letting everyone know he was warming up.
You could have cooked Smores over what happened next. Murray stopped and started more than a New York taxi, then delivered a reverse layup and chirped the crowd. This seemed unthinkable a week ago as the Nuggets star stumbled clumsily through two of the worst postseason games of his career.
“No I didn’t hear (the boos). Maybe I didn’t pay attention. But I think he’s used to that. Maybe he likes to be that guy,” said three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. “In one way, that’s leadership, taking pressure on himself. He enjoyed that I think.”
Coach Michael Malone trusted that his team would punch back Friday, making the upstart Timberwolves taste leather. He asked the players before they boarded the plane to Minnesota if they believed. The scoreboard — 117-90 — screamed the answer.
“We had a hit-first mentality. We became the aggressor,” Malone said. “That was Denver Nugget basketball.”
It was like they had charisma bypass surgery. They went from whining to whaling on the Timberwolves. They delivered their best first quarter of the postseason. They owned a 56-41 lead at half and a 93-66 advantage after three periods. In the rare moments they let the Timberwolves up for air, it was an audible gasp.
When the game ended, Timberwolves fans rushed to the locker room tunnel to pose for pictures not with any players but record producer Metro Boomin. In the Nuggets locker room, business was booming. They were back.
This is what we all wanted to see. Everyone in Denver is over the national media dismissing the Nuggets as an afterthought, believing what happened last May was because of Jokic and sprinkles of pixie dust. Friday, the Nuggets stopped being reactionary. Passiveness became a stranger.
They took the game to the Wolves — whether it was Murray elbowing his way into the lane to get Jaden McDaniels in foul trouble or Jokic smashing into Rudy Gobert in the paint. Their supporting actors wandered into the spotlight in a way so common last postseason. Aaron Gordon made back-to-back 3s in the third quarter, accepting the Timberwolves’ dare to shoot. When things got a little greasy, Michael Porter Jr. drilled a shot from Target Field, stretching the advantage to 26 points.
These were the Nuggets who made memories and gave us all goosebumps. This was the team that made a parade possible. Tell them they are not good enough, back them into a corner, and they fight like a wolverine on an espresso.
It all started with Murray.
While Jokic is the engine of this team, Murray is the vibe. He was more of a character than a man of character in the two losses. Friday, he flourished in the aura of anger. The more hostile the crowd became, the better he played. The redder in the face the Timberwolves got — and man did the Nuggets benefit from a tightly called game by Tony Brothers’ officiating crew — the steadier Murray became.
“He is a guy that plays with a ton of emotion, and actually that’s when I think he’s at his best,” Malone said. “He set the tone.”
No one in the Twin Cities wanted Murray in this game. I believed he deserved a suspension for his hat trick of a tossed towel, heating pad and money sign at referee Mark Davis. Murray got the last laugh. Well, check that. The final smirk.
His teammates congratulated him. Malone, who had a verbal run-in with a fan in the fourth quarter that led to two men exiting the court, praised him.
It was enough to make Nuggets Nation smile. Murray did not just lead the Nuggets to a win. He rubbed it in. The only thing missing was the tip of a black cowboy hat.
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