Jamal Murray drops 43, sparks Nuggets to comfortable 131-115 win over Clippers, 3-2 series lead

This is the Jamal Murray Nuggets fans have been waiting for this postseason. With this version of Murray, playing off Nikola Jokic, the Denver Nuggets resemble their 2023 championship team. The issue this season has been that version of Murray has not been around consistently.

That Murray showed up on Tuesday night, dropped 43 on the Clippers, sparked a comfortable 131-115 win, and now the Nuggets are one game away from advancing to the second round.

“He made every shot, pull-up 3s, midrange,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said of Murray. “We did everything, we blitzed him, we dropped, we switched, we did a lot of different coverages, but he had a hell of a game.”

Behind Murray, Denver’s offense had its best game of the series and now the Nuggets lead the series 3-2, heading back to Southern California for Game 6 on Thursday night.

For the first three games of this series, the Clippers looked like the better team, but Denver escaped Game 1 with a win because vintage Russell Westbrook showed up in the clutch.

However, for the last two games, the Nuggets have been the better team for seven of the eight quarters. They were in charge after three quarters of Game 4, then almost had an epic meltdown, one salvaged by Aaron Gordon’s tip-in. That makes two games the Clippers let slip through their hands.

Game 5 Tuesday night was all Denver from the opening tip. The longer this series has gone, the more it has felt like Jokic and Murray have figured the Clippers out, while the opposite feels true for Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.

Jokic finished with a relatively quiet triple-double of 13 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. Aaron Gordon had 23 points, while Westbrook had a good game off the bench with 19 points, shooting 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.

The best Clipper on the floor Tuesday night was Ivica Zubac, who scored 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting. Leonard added 20 points and 11 assists, while Harden had another quiet game with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Expect a desperate Clippers team in Game 6, one at home and trying to save its season. A big night from Harden or Norman Powell, could help the Clippers extend their season, but what Los Angeles needs more than their offense is for the team to rediscover the defense that had stood out in the first three games of this series.