Nuggets star Jamal Murray’s seemingly disrespectful reaction to Anthony Edwards question adds fuel to Game 7

The Denver Nuggets had plenty of reasons to be confident heading into Game 6 of their second-round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2024 NBA playoffs. After all, Nikola Jokic seems to have found his stride, and most importantly, the Nuggets came into Target Center and won both games in the Timberwolves’ home floor with relative ease to take back control of the series. But in Game 6 came a performance straight out of the Nuggets’ nightmares. Jamal Murray, in particular, did not look like himself during the Timberwolves’ 115-70 beatdown of the reigning champion.

Murray seemed to have regained his rhythm after struggling for the first two games of the series. In Games 3 to 5, he averaged 19.7 points on 50 percent shooting from the field, improving mightily from the ghastly 3-18 performance he put up in Game 2. But the Nuggets star guard did not get a chance to get going in Game 6. With Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards around to make his life a living hell, Murray scuffled to the tune of a 4-18 shooting night as he ended with just 10 points in the Nuggets’ worst loss in playoff history.

Edwards, in particular, did a masterful job in hounding Jamal Murray and preventing him from getting to his spots. The Timberwolves’ defense showed its teeth yet again, thanks in large part to Edwards’ stifling coverage at the point of attack. But it doesn’t seem like Murray was fazed by Edwards’ defense. In fact, it looked as though the Nuggets guard had a disrespectful reaction to a question regarding Edwards’ defense during his postgame presser.

“How difficult did Anthony Edwards make it for you when he was checking you?” the reporter asked.

“Who?” Murray responded. “For me? I mean, it was more of my elbow at that point. Even some passes, my arm [was hurting]. But it was more offensively for him. It wasn’t him guarding me. He was scoring on the other end and scoring at a great rate.”

But of course, a closer look at the postgame interaction shows that Nuggets star Jamal Murray had no intention of disrespecting anyone on the Timberwolves. But that won’t prevent Timberwolves fans from running away with a narrative that does nothing but encourage them to cheer even louder as their team heads into what is guaranteed to be a dogfight of a Game 7 against the defending champion.

Jamal Murray tips his hat to the Timberwolves

It genuinely looked as though Jamal Murray was only clarifying the reporter’s question; it was unclear to the Nuggets star if the question was, indeed, directed to him and whether the reporter was pertaining to him as the one who had a difficult time scoring against Anthony Edwards on Thursday night.

Some Timberwolves fans may have recognized that, but they were not too pleased that Murray still blamed his elbow and some of the injuries that have been bothering him instead of fully giving credit to the way Edwards and company guarded him. But Murray was very complimentary of the way the Timberwolves responded after losing three straight.

“I won’t take no credit from Minnesota. They came to play. They brought that energy and they used that home crowd to their advantage,” Murray said. “Everybody on their team brought their game today. We weren’t able to defend them and keep them out of the paint or get them out of the line. We just got to be better. We got to be better.”

The Nuggets have the heart of a champion, and part of being at the top of one’s game is recognizing when they aren’t. On Thursday night, the Timberwolves were better in all facets of the game, but Jamal Murray acknowledged that, which bodes well for them as they look to put up a championship-level response on Sunday.

Will Murray’s elbow be a concern for the Nuggets?

Jamal Murray appeared to hurt his elbow early in Game 6, and evidently, it bothered him all night long en route to a 4-18 outing. He was out of sorts all night long, and the knock to his elbow only made things worse for him as he already has to deal with ongoing battle against a calf strain.

It’s unclear how severe the elbow injury Murray sustained is. But the Nuggets will need him to be physically capable of putting up a star-level performance, or else they might be on their way to Cancun earlier than expected.

“I hope for team’s sake that I can get it right,” a laughing Murray said in his postgame presser. “Just got to get ready and be better for Sunday.”