The Nuggets are on a hot streak, and it's because of Murray's play.
The Denver Nuggets can't stop winning right now, and Jamal Murray has been the biggest reason why.
Denver ran its win streak to seven on Wednesday night with a 130-117 victory over the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City, a game Murray pretty much put away before the first quarter was over.
He knocked down three triples in the opening 90 seconds, launched a half-court heave at the buzzer, and finished with 37 points on 10-of-16 from three in one of his best performances of an already career-best season.
Afterward, Murray talked about what's been driving the Nuggets during this run.
"Just expecting more from ourselves throughout the game, you know, just not letting up," Murray said. "We know this team, they come out, they play hard every single night. Guys trying to prove themselves, guys going at us. So, we just got to make sure that we bring the intensity and the focus to match that or exceed it. So, I think just every game we've been just trying to create good habits no matter who we're playing, no matter what the coverage is. Just play with some confidence, play with some trust, and like I said, create good habits for playoffs."
Denver's Offense Has Been Unstoppable
The streak has included wins over Dallas, Phoenix, Portland, Golden State, and two over Utah, and during that stretch the Nuggets have looked like a team that's finally put it all together after a season full of setbacks.
They sit at 49-28 and fourth in the Western Conference, trailing the Los Angeles Lakers by 1.5 games for the third seed with five left to play.
What's really made this stretch pop is Murray and Nikola Jokic both playing at an elite level at the same time, which hasn't always been possible this year given how banged up Denver has been.
Murray is putting up 25.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists on the season, all career-highs, and during the win streak those numbers have jumped even higher to 30.7 points per game on better than 50 percent shooting from three.
Jokic, meanwhile, is averaging a triple-double with 27.7 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 10.8 assists and recorded his 32nd of the year against the Jazz with 15 points, 17 rebounds, and 12 assists in a game where he didn't need to force much.
Building Habits That Matter in April
The thing that stands out most about Murray's postgame comments is that he wasn't really talking about the streak at all.
He was talking about the playoffs, about building trust and staying locked in regardless of the matchup, and that forward-thinking approach fits with how Denver has played lately.
The Nuggets recently made NBA history when Murray went for 53 and Jokic nearly had a 20-20-20 game against Dallas, and those kinds of performances aren't accidents when they keep showing up in late March and early April.
Getting here hasn't been easy, though.
Jokic missed 16 games with a knee injury earlier in the year and several other starters dealt with their own absences, so Denver spent most of the season piecing things together without a full roster.
Now that the group is mostly healthy and clicking, Murray looks like he's settled into a completely different gear in his ninth season, one where he's thinking about playoff habits even on nights where he drops 37 without much resistance.
And with Jokic doing historically unprecedented things from the center spot, nobody in the West should feel great about drawing Denver in a first-round series.