Devin Booker and Jamal Murray go back and forth in Denver
Two of the NBA’s best up and coming combo guards went head to head in a Western Conference matchup between the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets on Friday night. The former Kentucky Wildcats, Devin Booker and Jamal Murray, lit up the scoreboard and flipped on the green light as soon as they hit the court.
Booker finished the game with 30 points, five rebounds and five dimes, but he was not to be outdone as Murray matched his performance with 30 points and five rebounds of his own. Murray’s overly aggressive defense forced him to the bench with six fouls and ultimately The Nuggets went on to lose the contest 108-100.
Devin Booker wasn’t the only Sun to put in work, his efforts in the win were aided by 25 points from T.J. Warren and 16 from rookie Josh Jackson. It’s games like these that show just how well the young Suns can play when they get the ball rolling. Unfortunately, more nights than not, they struggle to find a rhythm offensively.
The Nuggets sit in a much different position than Phoenix. While the Suns have yet to piece the puzzle together, Denver has seemingly found a winning formula by featuring young stars Nikola Jokic, Gary Harris and Murray.
While Murray doesn’t quite project to be the all-around offensive juggernaut that Booker has become, he has a game that compares quite well to volume scorer Lou Williams. Some may say you can’t build a franchise around such a player, but the beauty here is that the Nuggets don’t have to.
Jamal Murray is undersized and trigger happy, but he’s confident, and that’s exactly what a team like Denver needs. Without a go to scorer All-Star scorer, at times their offense has struggled to get going. However, that’s where Murray comes in to fill the void, and more nights than night he fill that roll beautifully.
Like I said before, he’ll probably never become a James Harden, Klay Thompson or DeMar DeRozan type player, but that don’ts have to stop him from having a great career. After all, where would teams like the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs be without their storied volume scorers Jason Terry and Manu Ginobili?
