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Jamal Murray watched the shot drop, heard the whistle and let Landry Shamet know about it.
The ensuing technical foul for taunting barely registered — especially after Kevin Durant missed the free throw that came with it.
Murray’s message, on the other hand, came through loud and clear.
A lackluster first half? Ancient history. A Game 5 knockout punch? Coming right up.
Murray’s engine throttled into full gear and the Nuggets roared to life right along with him. Footprint Center, this is not.
Back at home on the Front Range, Murray and two-time MVP Nikola Jokic authored a basketball clinic of a third quarter and propelled Denver to a crucial 118-102 Game 5 victory over Phoenix to claim a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Nuggets will have a chance to claim a spot in the conference final on Thursday night in the desert.
They have their two best players to thank for it, though almost everybody took a turn in the Ball Arena limelight as they wrestled control of the series back from the Suns.
Jokic and Murray led from the vanguard for Denver’s most important run of the season. In a 21-6 burst to start the second half, they combined for the first 14 points. In a 39-25 quarter overall, Jokic went 6 of 6 from the floor and poured in 17 points while Murray shrugged off a slow start to add seven points, three assists, three rebounds and a floor game that couldn’t have looked more different than the opening 24 minutes.
“I think sometimes we maybe take Nikola Jokic for granted because what he is doing is simply incredible,” coach Michael Malone said. “Every single night. … Never gets rattled, Cool Hand Luke and we’re just so thankful he’s a Denver Nugget.”
Jokic finished with his 10th career postseason triple double, tallying 29 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists. Murray had all but two of his 19 points in the second half and Bruce Brown (25 points) Michael Porter Jr. (19) provided scoring punch and energy.
Denver had 32 assists on 42 field goals and had five players tally double figures in the scoring column.
“Because we defended and because we rebounded, we got 31 fast-break points. That’s who we are,” Malone said.
Suns stars Devin Booker and Kevin Duran saw their efficiency recede from molten to simply good, combining for 54 points on 18-of-33 shooting after averaging 79 per game in two wins at home.
Good wasn’t close enough to knock off Denver on this night.
Denver launched out to a 15-point lead early and led by 11 after a quarter on the strength of hot offense and feisty defense, led respectively by Porter and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Porter knocked in a quartet of 3-pointers in the opening stanza, including a transition 3 in which he first gave the ball up to Jokic and then got it back to buy himself time to get into a good rhythm. Caldwell-Pope, meanwhile, has had his hands full in this series, tasked with trying to slow Booker. His six rebounds, steal and overall demeanor in the first quarter helped Denver’s strong start. Malone said he gave Caldwell-Pope defensive player of the game honors.
“Michael Porter got us going tonight,” the coach added. “I thought he gave us a huge boost.”
After just 11 bench points Sunday, Denver got 34 in Game 5.
All of that went begging in the second quarter, however. Porter and Aaron Gordon combined for 22 in the first 12 minutes and then just two in the second quarter. The Nuggets hit just 6 of 22 from the floor in the frame and just two points in the first half from Murray, who went 1 of 6, turned the ball over and slipped multiple times on the offensive end. He had a chance to put an exclamation mark on the first quarter in front of a frothing crowd but had a dunk attempt stuffed by Durant at the rim and then threw a pass away on Denver’s final possession.
Durant won the battle at the rim, but the miss was a microcosm of the Nuggets’ first half. They hit 8 of 18 from 3-point range, but just 10 of 31 from inside the arc.
Before the game, Malone said, “This series comes down to one thing and one thing alone: It’s transition defense. We can talk about everything else — Devin Booker in pick-and-rolls, KD isos, but come on man, we’re giving them over 19 transition points a night. We’re ranked eighth out of eight teams in the second round of the playoffs in transition points allowed. … If we can’t eliminate the transition, we’re not going to win this series. Point blank.”
Denver ripped out of the gates with 17 fast-break points to Phoenix’s eight in the first quarter, but got none in the second quarter as the Suns used a 12-2 run — and 32 first-half points from Booker and Durant combined over the first 24 minutes — to get right back into the game.
That felt a long time past by the time this one ended.
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