WASHINGTON (AP) - Jamal Murray overcame some early jitters to have 24 points and eight assists in his first playoff game since the 2020 NBA bubble as the top-seeded Denver Nuggets routed the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-80 Sunday night.
“Murray was Murray,” Wolves point guard Chris Conley said. “He’s one of the better scorers, playmakers, from our position.”
Michael Porter Jr., who scored 18 points in his first playoff game since missing last year’s run with a bad back, said Murray used his time off after blowing out his left knee in 2021 to improve his basketball IQ.
“I told him the other day I feel like he’s better now than before the injury,” Porter said. “I know he probably doesn’t feel it, but just his overall game, his awareness, he had like a year off where he had to just watch.”
Porter scored 18 points and Nikola Jokic added 13 points, 14 rebounds and a half dozen assists in 28 minutes as Denver snapped a five-game skid in playoff openers — and became the only higher seed to win on its homecourt Sunday.
Both Porter and Murray started off slow offensively, so they turned up their defense, diving for loose balls and crashing the glass until they found their shooting touch.
Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 18 points. Karl-Anthony Towns, who was rounding into form this month after missing 52 games with a bad calf, missed 10 of his first 12 shots and finished with 11 points.
Minnesota coach Chris Finch lamented Denver’s tougher physicality and better control.
Jokic said during the Nuggets’ week off that he was eager to see how they’d do do with Murray and Porter back in the lineup with him after injuries and surgeries waylaid Denver’s Big Three each of the last two postseasons.