The Denver Nuggets are heading into Game 6 of their first-round matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night up 3-2 in the series thanks in large part to Jamal Murray’s incredible play in Game 5. Murray caught fire and didn’t cool off, finishing with 43 points on eight made threes for his sixth 40-point playoff game — the most in Nuggets franchise history.
Murray always seems to have it out for the Clippers; he also went bananas against them back in the 2020 NBA playoffs as the Nuggets came back from a second consecutive 3-1 series deficit. But this time around, a series against the Clippers means more to Murray, especially when he’s coming up against 2016 NBA Draft classmates Ben Simmons and Kris Dunn.
NBA players tend to derive motivation from all sorts of things, and Murray, despite nearly being a decade removed from being selected by the Nuggets with the seventh overall pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, still feels a big chip on his shoulder whenever he faces Simmons and Dunn — two players that were drafted ahead of him (Simmons was picked first, Dunn was fifth). But this is only secondary to his desire to play winning basketball for the Nuggets, the team that believed in him in the first place.
“[I thought about the draft storyline] more before (the series). We’re just competing. We’re just trying to get the win right now. It’s best out of three. It’s not about making it personal. It’s just, you know, it goes for anybody. Not just (Dunn). But it’s just a competitive spirit. It’s like I said, I like the challenge, and I like to give a challenge, too,” Murray said, per Bennett Durando of the Daily Camera.
