Jamal Murray joins Michael Jordan, Jerry West in NBA playoff history, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise

Before we even start talking about Jamal Murray, a few reminders: he’s 23. This is his fourth NBA season and his second post-season. This is important, because there is this vague notion around analyst land that Murray is some kind of interpreter of Jekyll and Hyde, as if he had lost 40 one night and disappeared the next, like the difference between him and her. ” real “top guards.” it is its inability to maintain, or repeat, greatness.

Don’t listen to him.

It does not make sense.

Murray suspended 50 points at the Utah Jazz on Sunday while the Nuggets won Game 6, 119-107, to force Game 7 on Tuesday. Marks the third consecutive playoff game in which Murray, who lost 42 points in Game 5 and another 50 in Game 4, scored at least 40 points; the last player to do so was Allen Iverson in 2001. Do the math and Murray has scored 142 total points in these last three games. According to StatMuse, only Jerry West in 1965 and Michael Jordan in 1988 have ever scored more than this in three consecutive playoff games.

It doesn’t mean that Murray is close to that category of players, or ever will be. And that’s certainly not to say that Murray didn’t wade into inconsistent waters during his young career. He scored 26 combined points in games 2 and 3 against Utah out of 11 out of 29 shots including 30% out of three. Last season he scored six points out of 2 out of 6 in Game 3 against Spurs.

But again, the guy played in two postseason, and as a total body of work he already acquitted himself as nothing short of a star. A few bad games here and there at 23 in your first and second postseason doesn’t make you inconsistent; makes you 23 and not Luka Doncic.

There’s a big difference between “making the leap” and just, you know, getting better. Technically, every rising young star takes a leap at some point; it could be argued that Devin Booker did it this season, and specifically in the bubble. But just like with Booker, the signs that Murray was this type of jumping player were always there. It is not a leap. Having no idea that Bam Adebayo was an All-Star level forward, we are taking a leap. If you’re a little surprised that Jamal Murray is dominating the NBA playoffs as a shooter and scorer, while mixing up some related issues, you haven’t paid attention.

“He’s good,” an Eastern Conference coach jokingly wrote to CBS Sports, full of smiley faces on Sunday. “Show how important shooting and ball skills are in the playoffs.”

Let’s go ahead and state the obvious that shooting and ball skills don’t just matter in the playoffs; count in every basketball game on the planet. And they certainly matter in today’s NBA, which pretty much requires the point guards making the score to be able to create their own dribbling offense. You don’t have to look at Murray for five seconds to know he exudes shooting and ball skills. This isn’t just the start of this series, which has morphed into a first-round classic between Murray and Donovan Mitchell, who nearly equaled Murray with 44 points on Sunday.

Speaking of Mitchell, there’s another guy who got hit with the inconsistent tag. He shot 32 percent from the field last postseason. He averages over 38 points per game with 55% 3-point shots in the bubble. You can call it “the leap,” but to do so implies that there was something holding Michell back besides, you know, being in her third NBA season – all three of which ended up in post-season places, by the way, with the chance that two of them translate into first round wins.

Mitchell is turning off the lights right now. He’s not going to shoot like this forever, and when he retires it won’t be a reason to suggest he’s falling back into inconsistency. Likewise, as long as he keeps shooting like this, it doesn’t mean he has “made the leap”. This is, quite simply, an unsustainable high point for an up and coming star who is nonetheless on a trajectory fully commensurate with the talent and production he has demonstrated to kickstart his career.

Same goes for Murray, who is about to play the third Race 7 of his career. Last season he pulled monstrous shots to close Spurs in the first round, then went 4 for 18 against Portland in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. Does that mean it was Jekyll in one game and Hyde in the other? No. It means he played better in one than in the other. It’s called basketball.

When Murray has five years of playoff rehearsal behind him, with a significant amount of no-shows on his resume, then you can start talking about him like he’s always a threat to make a vanishing act. Until then, we don’t take for granted just how great these new-age young people are, because the incredibly high level they collectively set themselves is the only reason we can dare to throw an “inconsistent” label at a 23-year-old hanging multiple. 50-point games – averaging 34 points per night with a 57% better 3-point shot – in a playoff series.

And again, it’s not like this is something new. Yes, a guy who goes from an average of 21 points in last year’s post-season to 34 points this year, with significantly better shooting times, seems like a leap on paper, but that’s eye-testing stuff. Murray was the best player on the track in many post-season action last season, particularly in the most important moments; scored an average of just under 24 against Portland and played 34-point consecutive games in that series, and now he’s happened to have a streak of winning streak in the bubble this time against a Utah defense that’s playing right in his hands.

“[Rudy] Gobert is back [on screens]”the Eastern Conference coach himself told CBS Sports.”[Murray is] coming out naked for the shots. “

You mean Jamal Murray is doing a lot of good shots, and then once he gets started, he’s doing it all for some games? I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s nothing out of character. Murray is no different player, any more than Damian Lillard is a different player when he overheats. You know there is. Did you see it. It’s just that Lillard does it more regularly now.

I’m not saying Murray will ever be a player we can mention in the same breath as Lillard (although that’s not out of the question), but I find these two guys to be similar in the fact that Lillard has never made a single monumental leap at any point in time. his career. Rather, he got better each year, every series, until one day we looked up and wondered why we hadn’t been calling him a star all along. It won’t be long before we say the same thing about Murray, if we don’t already have to be. Because none of this, particularly when you take into account the ridiculous footage clips that pretty much everyone is putting into the bubble, is indicative of something we’ve never seen from him before.