Nuggets Jamal Murray (hamstring) expected to miss rest of month, per source: Where that leaves De
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray is expected to miss the remainder of November with a right hamstring strain, a league source said. Here’s what you need to know:
- Murray injured his hamstring in the Nuggets’ 123-101 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
- The 2023 NBA champion is averaging 16.3 points, 7.4 assists and 2.6 rebounds on 43.8 percent shooting from 3-point range through seven starts this season.
- Denver, 8-1, sits atop the Western Conference.
What does this mean for Denver?
Murray’s injury threatens to partially derail the best start in the NBA — at 7-foot-1, the Nuggets have the league’s best record. They have been dominant on most nights, alarmingly consistent and often spectacular. They are unbeaten at home and would like to make a statement by playing well against a Golden State team that looks to be completely different than last year’s team, which lost in the second round.
Advertisement
On Monday, Denver cooked the New Orleans Pelicans in the second half, but that masked the fact that the Nuggets were down 20 in the first half. They looked listless and rudderless. They weren’t defending well. Point guard Collin Gillespie, who is now in the rotation with Murray down, played a terrific second half but struggled in the first half. Denver looked like a team adjusting without their point guard.
In truth, we have yet to see a specific issue without Murray, but we could Wednesday. In clutch minutes, the Nuggets go to the Jokić-Murray two-man game on nearly every possession that matters in a game’s last five minutes because it’s proven to be almost impossible to defend. — Tony Jones, NBA staff writer
Required reading
(Photo: AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGlrbnBkbXxzfJFsZmppX2WFcLrUoJ6erKNit6K5wKVkpq2ip666eceapKysop67qHnSramaoZ5k