Jamal Murray Talks Nuggets' Game 4 Win vs. Heat | 2023 NBA Finals

Good to see you, man. It's our guide, Jamal Murray. Like we said, making history, four consecutive games, to start the NBA Finals. Look at that change. My man. That's him and he on a mission. He trying to get out of Miami. He on a mission. Jamal, we've talked earlier this season, right? About how great you were in 2020 during the run, when you got hurt. And then to see the way you play now, it's like you've evolved into being a guy that can get 10 assists in four consecutive games. How much pride do you take in that, creating for others, not just getting your own buckets? Just not fighting it. You know, it felt like they were blitzing me all game, you know, just basically trying to live in my shot attempts. And I wasn't fighting it. We knew that if they do that, we're playing four on three in the backside and we're gonna let guys step up and make shots. So, you know, like I said, guys were cutting, guys were moving and it's like I said, tough to guard all of us. You can't focus on one or two guys. You gotta account for everybody else on the floor and that makes us tough to guard. You know, Jamar, everyone talks about, you know, your physical toughness. I wanna speak to you about your mental toughness and your collective mental toughness as a basketball team. How has that grown and evolved over the last couple of years for all of you individually and then collectively as a team? And everyone talks about the physical, but what we're seeing now is the mental toughness that you guys are showing. Not only the toughness, but the intellect that you're playing with. Yeah, I mean, the mind carries the body, you know? So if you put your mind to something and whatever it is, the body's gonna gear itself up to follow. So I think not just me, but we all did a great job of just, you know, honing in, getting our treatment, focusing on what we gotta do, not worrying about the crowd, keeping our poise on the road. And for me, just, you know, that gets me going, you know, pain gets me going. So just staying locked in and having fun out there, you know, putting your body to the test is always fun. This team reminds me a lot of the San Antonio Spurs with the Tim Duncan era guys in this regard. I asked Manu Dolobly, and this is the question for you. How difficult was it? Cause I've watched you play AAU when you were coming into the States, obviously at Kentucky, going on, knowing that you can score so easily. Cause every time you get the ball, you say, I could score. And I said this to Ginobili, every time you get it, you feel you have the advantage, but how do you decide that that four on three, like you said, is on the backside? When do you decide to say, I'm not gonna take advantage of the advantage that I think I have every time I touch the ball? Just picking my spots. I think I, throughout the game, you know, it's gonna be a long game, you know? So it may not be my quarter. I may not shoot for six, seven minutes. I may not touch it. But as long as we're winning the game and I haven't got going yet, then we're in a good spot, you know? So it's just about picking my spots and keeping pressure on them from all areas of the court. And today, you know, a guy stepped up and made shots. It made my job easy, just finding the open man. I made Yoke's job easy, finding open man. So we got one more and it's a team game. Everybody came in today, stepped up and we're just having fun right now. Talk to me about your relationship with Coach Malone. I mean, you two seem to have a very special relationship where, you know, it seems to go beyond just coach-player. It seems to be a lot of care and tenderness in that relationship. Well, he knows how much I love the game. And he trusts me out there. You know, we've only built trust in the seven years that we've been together. He's seen me evolve. He's seen me score my game. How long? Only seven? Seven. That's unheard of in the NBA. The new NBA, for sure. Right, right. Well, we've had our core together, you know what I'm saying? So we kind of know what we're looking for, know where to get our shots from. He knows when I got it going. It's more of a feel. It's less X's and O's. It's more of what's your mood like today? You know what I'm saying? So I think that's where it stems from. Yeah. 2018, I'm with Minnesota, you're with Denver. Cooking. I'm just messing with you. No, no, no. I'm about to get to it. The last game of the season, both of us are fighting for a playoff spot. It comes down to us two. Unique situation. Me and him have some words in the game. Afterwards, I'm like, I like him. He's a dog. He tears his ACL. I reach out to you. I say, you're going to come back better than ever. Did you believe during those hard moments, the hard days of tearing the ACL, that you would get back to this moment? Did you prepare for this moment? Yeah, yeah. It took, I'd say it took a good month and a half. Once I started seeing improvement, then I was like, okay. I'm seeing this much improvement already. I know that by the time I'm ready to go, I'll be ready. But I just, for me, it was like, I want to, I was motivated. Like, I want to be, I want to jump higher. I want to be able to jump left, right. I want to jump two foot vert, like A.G. You know what I'm saying? So, just having that in my mind, like motivated me to lift more on my bad days. And just stay locked in throughout it, you know? Because, you know, you go through rehab, you have those days where it's like, I don't want to do it. But then, that hurts you at this time. So, I was busting my ass for a good six, seven months straight. Like, I didn't want to do it, but I'm doing extra just because I know that we're going to need me at this time. And it's paying off. You say paying off. One win away from winning your first NBA championship. How you feeling about that? One more. Staying even, Q. We can talk after that one. That's that Kobe answer. Job's not finished. Job's not done. Anything else for Jamal Murray? Good luck, brother. Tell your dad I'll meet him at our spot. Hey, I saw the cooking. I saw a couple of my moves you displaying, too. The Jamal thing. I've seen a couple of my moves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. We're happy for you. Keep going, man. Keep going. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate you, Tom. Jamal Murray in the Denver Nuggets. Again, just a single win away from the first NBA championship in franchise history.