Just How Special Were Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray In their NBA Finals Debuts?
DENVER — Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray have been teammates since the latter's rookie year in 2016-17. Over the course of seven seasons and three playoff runs, they'd played 10,542 minutes together.
In 2018, they lost a Game 82 that cost them a playoff appearance. In 2020, they lost in the Conference Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2021, Murray suffered an ACL tear that would sideline him for a year and a half.
This duo has been through a lot over nearly a decade.
And on Thursday, they made their NBA Finals debut together in a 104-93 win over the Miami Heat.
The two-man game that's flummoxed NBA defenses for years was on brilliant display throughout the win.
Jokić finished with 27 points on 8-of-12 shooting, 14 assists, 10 rebounds, one steal and one block. And it didn't feel like he was even trying to score for much of the game.
At halftime, he had 10 assists, three field-goal attempts and zero turnovers.
"That's the beauty of Nikola," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after the game. "The defense tells you what to do, and Nikola never forces it. If you're going to give him that kind of attention, he's going to pick you apart."
And he wasn't alone. Murray, who had 26 points on 11-of-22 shooting and 10 assists, was also dicing up Miami's defense. First as a scorer, and then more as a distributor after the Heat keyed in on him.
Whether it's Jokić or Murray initiating, you can bet Denver will get, at the very least, a good look almost every time down the floor. Both can create for themselves or their teammates. And when they're in actions together, their dynamism might be unrivaled by current duos.
Yes, it may be a little early for takes like this. We're only one game into their first Finals. LeBron James and Anthony Davis have won a championship together. Ditto for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green have four.
But there's a synergy between Jokić and Murray that no one else really has. They're the basketball equivalent of a sentence finisher (but in a good way). Each always seems to know where the other will be. And the way they facilitate each other's games feels telepathic.
When asked about how it felt to debut in the Finals with Jokić, Murray described their games as "fluid."
By the end of the game, both playmakers had double-digit assist totals. Jokić became the second player in NBA history to record a triple-double in his Finals debut. And that doesn't even begin to describe how special this dual debut was.
According to the league:
- "Jokić's 14 assists are the most by a player in his first NBA Finals game."
- "Jokić and Murray have joined Michael Jordan (1991) and Russell Westbrook (2012) as the only players to post at least 25 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in an NBA Finals debut."
- "Jokić and Murray are the second pair of teammates to each have at least 25 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in an NBA Finals game, joining the Lakers' Magic Johnson and James Worthy (Game 1 in 1987). Jokić/Murray and Johnson/Worthy are also the only pair of teammates to each have 25 points and 10 assists in an NBA Finals game."
And now that the heavily favored Nuggets are up 1-0, FiveThirtyEight's projection system gives them an 83 percent chance to win the first Finals in team history.
It's way too early to crown them. Few teams have shown as much resilience in a playoff run as this Heat squad. They knocked off each of the top two teams in the East. They bounced back from a gut-wrenching Game 6 loss to the Boston Celtics and clinched that series in a Game 7 on the road.
If anyone can bounce back from an opening loss and redirect the trajectory of this series, it's Jimmy Butler and the Heat.
But Murray and Jokić combining for 53 points, 24 assists and 16 rebounds (in a game in which the Nuggets only scored 104) in their first Finals game showed a level of poise Miami hasn't seen yet.
After the game, Aaron Gordon referred to both as "floor generals." And that's something that sets this duo apart.
It was pretty obvious who the primary playmaker was in the John Stockton-Karl Malone duo. With Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, both were dominant scorers, and neither was a high-volume distributor.
In a way, Murray and Jokić may play the most like Green and Curry. There's a balance between their offensive games that makes them completely unpredictable.
And that chemistry led the Golden State Warriors to multiple titles.
It's obviously too early to start thinking about the Nuggets in those terms, but Murray, Jokić, Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. are all under contract through 2024-25.
Even after seven years and 10,000-plus minutes together, it's hard not to feel like Jokić and Murray are just getting started.
