{"id":381763,"date":"2026-01-01T16:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/381763\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:14:08","slug":"nuggets-murray-ready-to-shoulder-more-responsibility-with-jokic-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/381763\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets’ Murray ready to shoulder more responsibility with Jokic out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian Jamal Murray<\/a> was back home for the first night of the next four weeks without his Denver Nuggets<\/a> teammate, three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Murray and the Nuggets survived a Toronto Raptors second-half rally to hang on for a 106-103 win before 19,181 at Scotiabank Arena.<\/p>\n

Jokic suffered a hyperextended left knee in the dying seconds of the Nuggets\u2019 loss on the road against the Miami Heat on Monday. He\u2019s expected to miss a minimum of four weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did enough, but I could have been better,\u201d the 28-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., said.<\/p>\n

Murray checked in with 21 points, shooting a poor 6-of-18 from the field, including 2-of-5 three-point attempts.<\/p>\n

In his ninth season, Murray has scored a career-high 25.2 points per game. His next best was last year at 21.4. But the entire basketball community knows that Murray will be the defensive focus of the opposition with Jokic on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cJamal has been so good this year, man,\u201d Nuggets head coach Dave Adelman said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been a joy to watch. He\u2019s playing basketball in such a free way. I just think he\u2019s in a good place altogether. So, yeah, a lot of responsibility is coming his way, but he can handle it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing Nikola is losing one of the greatest players to ever live, bottom line. He could retire today, and we\u2019d say that. But Jamal\u2019s responsibility right now is to keep making the right play because he\u2019s going to have attention beyond attention all over the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to get doubled and blitzed in pick and rolls. So, we have to do things for Jamal. We have to screen to get him open. We have to do unselfish things for him, and on the flip side of that, he has to continue to make the right play, which he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray remarked he relishes the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to play my own game, stay aggressive, stay composed and play quickly,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m also trying to stay unselfish.\u201d<\/p>\n

After scoring 13 points in the first half, Murray struggled in the final two quarters until the end. But he scored four of Denver\u2019s final nine points to seal the deal in front of friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t take it for granted,\u201d said Murray, whose hometown is an hour\u2019s drive west of Toronto. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s always fun. Obviously, I got a lot of friends here, a lot of family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon Ingram made his game-tying off-balance three-point jumper, but his attempt did not beat the buzzer. A video review determined that the ball was still on Ingram\u2019s fingertips when time expired.<\/p>\n

The Raptors guard was asked if he felt he had tied the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did,\u201d said Ingram, who scored a game-high 30 points. \u201cMaybe I need to cut my fingernails.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raptors overcame a 21-point deficit at home to defeat the Orlando Magic on Monday. They fell behind by 13 points to the Nuggets in the second quarter, only to rally in the second half.<\/p>\n

Former Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas received a warm ovation before the game when his face was shown on the scoreboard. The 33-year-old Lithuanian spent the first six-plus seasons of his career with the Raptors.<\/p>\n

With Jokic on the sidelines, six-foot-11 Valanciunas hit season highs in points (17) and minutes (23) with nine rebounds before leaving late in the third quarter with a right calf strain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian Jamal Murray was back home for the first night of the next four weeks without his Denver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-381763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}