If the Denver Nuggets are going to advance in a rough Western Conference playoff landscape, they’re going to need star guard Jamal Murray to be at full strength. It appears that may not be the case, however, as the right hamstring injury that has sidelined Murray for the past five games may be worse than initially thought.
Prior to Sunday’s 125-120 loss to the Indiana Pacers, Nuggets coach Michael Malone said that Murray will “hopefully” be able to suit up for the first game of the playoffs — quite a difference from the initial day-to-day designation.
“Hopefully he’s able to be back by (the playoffs),” Malone said, via The Denver Post. “This has been a weird one. It was day-to-day, day-to-day, and then next thing you know, it’s not day-to-day.”
The potent second offensive option next to Nikola Jokić, Murray has averaged 22 points and six assists this season on 40% 3-point shooting. He’s also gotten stronger as the season has progressed, upping his scoring to 24.5 points on 43% 3-point shooting over his last 25 games. Denver has gone 2-5 in the last seven games that Murray has missed.
Malone dismissed the notion that Murray was being held out of games due to an abundance of caution, stating that his point guard would be playing if he were physically capable.
“Jamal’s hurt. It’s not ‘careful.’ He’s hurt,” Malone said. “So there’s a big difference. ‘Careful’ is if a guy can play and you want to be smart. We’re not in a situation to do that. There are six teams vying for four (playoff) spots. So if Jamal Murray is not out there, it’s not ‘careful.’ It’s because he literally just is not able to play at the moment.”
As Malone alluded to, there is a dogfight going on in the Western Conference, with Nos. 3 through eight seeds separated by just two games as of Sunday evening. A poor performance over the their final four games could see the Nuggets slip from No. 4 all the way to one of the Play-In spots.
Russell Westbrook is the Nuggets’ backup point guard, but in Murray’s absence Malone has elected to start wing Peyton Watson — a long defender and transition threat — while leaving Westbrook as the sixth man. As great as Jokić is, it’s highly unlikely that the Nuggets would be able to advance in the playoffs without a healthy Murray, who has career postseason averages of 24 points and six assists on 39% shooting. His two-man game with Jokić has been particularly deadly, as the Nuggets averaged 125 points per 100 possessions with a plus-15 net rating with both of them on the floor last postseason.
