Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets are 15-10 this season. That puts Denver first in the Northwest Division and fourth in the Western Conference. They are 6-4 in their last ten games. Jamal Murray hit a clutch three to lead the Nuggets to a 121-120 win on Thursday night. That confidence boost has had some self-doubts about his abilities for Murray.
Murray had a good playoff run for the Nuggets in the 2020-21 season, but missed the entire 2021-22 season with an ACL injury. He just doesn’t feel like his old self yet and needs something positive to happen. That was exactly the kind of playoff hit that gave the Nuggets a win, and head coach Michael Malone says he’s confident his PG can bounce back.
NBA betting sites have the Nuggets at (+1400) to win the Finals this season.
Jamal Murray called the game pic.twitter.com/gy97R3qlif
— NBA (@NBA) December 9, 2022
Jamal Murray hit a three against the Blazers
Head coach Michael Malone spoke to Hoopship about self-doubt in a conversation with the leader.
“Can you guys trade me?’ His mind was there, ‘Maybe I’m hurt, maybe they don’t want me anymore.’ And obviously, I shut that down quickly and said, ‘Jamal, we love you. I love you. You’re not being traded. You’re going to come back a better player.'” – Michael Malone
Michael Malone on Jamal Murray: ‘Can you guys trade me?’ His mind was there, ‘Maybe I’m damaged by the damaged goods, maybe they don’t want me anymore.’ I shut that down and said, ‘We love you, you’re not being traded. You’ll come back a better player.’ pic.twitter.com/85ADhftLv2
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) December 9, 2022
The head coach added that dealing with an ACL injury can be both mentally and physically difficult for a professional athlete. It is very common to doubt your physical abilities after such an injury. Malone talked about how they don’t want to put any pressure on Murray to return sooner than he should.
“The most difficult part of doing an ACL is not the deformity, but the rehabilitation. That’s a journey, and there are some dark days.”… “We’ll never hurry back. We never put any pressure on him. He has had our full support throughout the process.” – Michael Malone
The next game is tomorrow night against the Utah Jazz at 9:00 PM.
