Shaq’s call answered by Jamal Murray’s best night of the season

The night started with Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal calling out Jamal Murray, asking for more from the Denver Nuggets star.

“Mr. Murray, where have you been? I guarantee you if you step up to the level that won you a championship you will be champions again,” Shaq said ahead of the game on TNT.

Murray might not have heard the big man but boy did he answer, pouring in 32 first-half points as the Nuggets pounded the Dallas Mavericks to a 71-45 lead at the break. Denver kept up the effort in the second half, and kept the win streak alive at four-in-a-row by winning 118-99, getting a season-high 45 points from Murray.

Murray joined just Nikola Jokic, Allen Iverson and Nick Van Exel as Nuggets to notch 30 or more in a half since 1997. The Blue Arrow’s first 24 minutes were the third-best by points scored across the NBA this season.

“I don’t know what he said, I would love to know what he said,” Murray said after the game on the broadcast before being told about Shaq’s viral clip. “I agree with it 100%, when I’m on there’s nothing to worry about. We just gotta play defense. Shaq is right I played terribly up until today.”

Murray had missed the second half of Friday’s game with knee concerns then was almost sat on Sunday for the same reason. Shaq did later qualify his thoughts with injury issues and Murray credited his performance to anti-inflammatories.

Jamal Murray in the 1st half:

32 points
12/15 shooting
4 threes pic.twitter.com/UHxmIae66y

— NBA (@NBA) January 15, 2025

 

Murray may have finished with even more and was on pace to challenge his career-high of 50, but the blowout with the Nuggets playing a back-to-back meant Michael Malone sat Nikola Jokic for the fourth quarter. While the stats would’ve been fun to chase, it was even more important for the Nuggets to save their legs for another night. Though, Denver’s huge 28-point lead dwindled to 14 at one point which kept Murray in there for a full 38 minutes.

While Murray was the toast of the town on Tuesday—nobody in the game besides him had more than 13 points—it was Jokic joining a few elite round-number clubs in the NBA’s record books. Jokic’s triple-double of 10 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists included his 5,000th carer helper which is the most by a center since Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Jokic’s carer numbers mean he’s become the fastest player to reach 15,000 points, 7,500 rebounds and 5,000 assists, doing so 90 games quicker than Larry Bird. The three-time MVP also became just the sixth player in league history to achieve those numbers plus 500 blocks—all the other members played at least seven more seasons than Jokic has thus far.

Jokic cruised on Tuesday and only played 29 minutes thanks to Murray. Meanwhile, the Mavs, who are just below the Nugget in the standings were without Luka Doncic once again. They got Kyrie Irving back for the contest but lost Dereck Lively II early to an injury. The Nuggets now have the seeding tiebreaker on the Mavs and proved to win both games of these tough baseball-style two-game same-city road trips. Denver shot the three better than Dallas on Tuesday and again killed them on the boards, a very positive sign if the two do end up meeting in the postseason.

Denver is on a back-to-back, hosting the second-place Houston Rockets on Wednesday, who themselves are on the first night of a back-to-back. The Nuggets will then swing through both Florida franchises over the weekend.

And it’s now worth watching the standings and thinking about the playoffs at about the midway point of the season, because if Murray is playing like this—well Shaq said it best when he spoke again on the Blue Arrow at halftime of the game.

“If (Murray’s) playing like this, the Denver Nuggets cannot be stopped,” Shaq said.