Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic are proving to be league’s deadliest duo in NBA Finals
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are just too good offensively
At the end of the day, what makes this offensive duo juggernaut-esque is just how good these two players are at basketball. Both of their offensive games are borderline flawless.
Jamal Murray is one of the league’s best offensive talents. Sure, he ‘only’ averaged 20.0 points and 6.2 assists on 57.1 TS% (45.4/39.8/83.3 shooting splits) in the regular season, but he’s clearly built for the playoffs, averaging 27.6 points and 6.4 assists on 59.4 TS% (48.1/39.2/92.9 splits). He’s creating more shots for himself in the postseason, too, which makes his increased efficiency even more impressive. At the same time, he doesn’t need the ball to score.
His pull-up shooting is among the best in the entire association. Over this postseason run, he’s shooting 48.7% on pull-up jumpers on an insane volume of 11.7 shots per game. In addition, he’s draining pull-up threes at a 38.2% clip on nearly five attempts per game. In the Western Conference Finals, he shot an otherworldly 62% on pull-ups. His ability to tough pull-ups is somehow understated, and it’s a key component of the Nuggets’ offensive success.
That step back in the first clip creates just enough space to lose Gabe Vincent for a split second, and he rises to drain a jump shot. The second clip sees Murray go into his bag to find his floater, which he has no contest on because Bam Adebayo can’t come over too far to help Martin. If he goes to contest the floater, Jokic would have an easy floater for himself, and Jokic might just have the best touch in the league on those short runners, shooting 64.1% on shots between three and 10 feet.
As a whole, is there much to say about Jokic’s talent? He’s arguably the most talented offensive player in NBA history. In this postseason, he’s averaging 29.8 points and 10.5 assists on a 62.6 TS% (54.2/47.5/78.9 splits), somehow much worse than his wild 70.1 TS% in the regular season. He can score from anywhere on the floor in any context, while also being arguably the greatest passer the league has ever seen with his precision, IQ, anticipation, and more. There is truly no recipe to stop the guy, so teams can just hope to slow him down.
And there hasn’t even been a mention of Murray’s playmaking, which is very good in its own right. It may not necessarily be elite, but it certainly borders that level. He is quite capable of making high-quality reads in the pick-and-roll, which is part of why the Murray and Jokic pick-and-roll is so deadly. He and Jokic seem to always be on the same wavelength.
How do you stop that move by Jokic in the second clip? What truly stands out is that last clip, though. Firstly, look at how Murray moves around the screen and into space. It’s like he never tore an ACL. He extends the play and gets Adebayo to stand straight up by looking like he’s taking a step-back jumper.
Then, he makes an incredible dish to Jokic, and it’s a warm-up shot for the Joker, who is shooting a video game-like 48% on non-corner 3s this postseason.
Because these two have a seemingly connected brain, there are just so many actions that these two can run beyond the P&R.