The Denver Nuggets fell to the Los Angeles Lakers, 119-108, on the road Saturday night in Game 4 of the first-round playoff series between the two teams.
The Nuggets still lead the series, 3-1, heading into Game 5 at home Monday night and are still the favorites to win the Western Conference this postseason, but one cause for concern for Denver as it moves forward has to be the play of guard Jamal Murray.
Murray had one of the highlight moments of the series so far when he nailed a mid-range jumper over Anthony Davis as time expired in Game 2 to give the Nuggets a win, but otherwise he has really struggled to put the ball in the basket.
In Game 4, Murray had 22 points and 10 assists on 9-of-24 shooting from the field. The Canadian national has hit the 20-point mark in every game of the series so far, but he has failed to shoot better than 40% from the field in any game so far.
Since the start of the postseason, Murray has made 38.0% of his field goal attempts and 20.8% from 3-point range. He was 0-for-4 from beyond the arc in the Game 4 loss Saturday.
Saturday marked just the sixth time this season and the first time since Feb. 22 that Murray failed to hit a 3-pointer in a game.
Murray came into this year's playoffs averaging over seven points per game better in the postseason than the regular season over the course of his career.
Murray's struggles were compounded by a less-than-stellar game from Denver's role players. After scoring a playoff career-high 29 points in Game 3, Aaron Gordon only had seven points on Saturday night. Michael Porter Jr. picked up the slack with 27 points, but the Nuggets' bench only totaled five points on the night.
On the other side, Los Angeles guard D'Angelo Russell rebounded from a horrendous performance in Game 3 to score 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting Saturday. The star of the show, though, was LeBron James — who had 30 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in the Lakers' win.
Last postseason, Murray averaged 26.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game while shooting 47.3% from the field and 39.6% from 3-point range. Along with Nikola Jokic, he was the main reason why Denver won the NBA title last year.
Denver wasted another special performance from Jokic on Saturday, as the presumptive MVP racked up 33 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists over the course of the night.
The Nuggets are always a threat to win with Jokic on the floor, but if Murray cant sort things out soon, Denver might have its hands full in its attempt to repeat as league champions in 2024.
If head coach Michael Malone's team advances past the first round, they will likely play the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Denver was 2-1 against the Timberwolves during the regular season. In those three games, Murray averaged 17.3 points, 7.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds over the three contests, shooting 19-of-43 (44.2%) from the field and 7-of-13 (53.8%) from 3-point range.
During the regular season, the Nuggets were 28-13 in games where Murray scored fewer than 25 points. The Canadian guard did miss 23 games this year while dealing with a knee injury.