![]() But through the first three quarters, the Suns had attempted only 11 3-pointers, and had made just four of them. Durant and Booker are nearly unstoppable from the elbow, and even in tonight's game, those shots were falling automatically for the Suns. Over 40% of their shots come from the mid-range, which ranks first in the league, and they make them at a 44% clip. It's been said ten times over how the Suns are the masters of the mid-range shot. Phoenix just didn't have an answer for Murray all night, and going forward they're going to have to figure out how to contain him, because if he's going to have free reign every trip up the floor, then this is going to be a very short series. His versatile scoring and playmaking not only takes off a lot of the offensive responsibility off of Jokic, but it makes the Nuggets more of a threat for a team like the Suns. ![]() Due to a torn ACL during the 2020-21 season, we haven't seen Murray in the playoffs since the Nuggets Western Conference finals run in the 2020 Orlando bubble. Murray's performance was a strong reminder of what Denver has been missing in the postseason in each of the past two seasons. It was the exclamation mark to what was a dominant performance from Murray, which also included this incredibly tough drive to kick off his run in the fourth quarter: The Nuggets guard proceeded to go on an 8-0 run by himself, including back-to-back 3-pointers, to push Denver's lead back up to 17 points. But Jamal Murray had other ideas about that. It was the closest the team had been since the second quarter, and it felt like Phoenix could get back in the game. With 8:54 left in the fourth quarter, the Suns had cut Denver's 17-point halftime lead down to 10 points. Here are three takeaways from the Nuggets Game 1 win. For the Suns, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker combined for 56 points, but it wasn't enough to contend with a hot-shooting Nuggets squad. Nikola Jokic finished with 24 points, 19 rebounds and five assists while Aaron Gordon added on 23 points of his own. ![]() All five Denver starters scored in double figures, while three players had at least 20 points. When the Suns started to get back into the game in the fourth quarter, Murray took it upon himself to put the game out of reach and Denver never looked back.īut Murray wasn't the only Nuggets player who had it going Saturday night. Jamal Murray was the primary reason for that, as the Nuggets guard finished with 34 points, nine assists and shot 54.2% from the field. Denver got out to a 17-point lead at halftime, and despite a strong third quarter from Phoenix, Denver ended up cruising to a win. The Denver Nuggets were in control from start to finish against the Phoenix Suns in Game 1 of this Western Conference semifinals series, and left with a 125-107 win. Talk about starting this series off with a statement win.
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