Nuggets’ Murray drops 52, buries Pacers with record-level 3-point barrage
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INDIANAPOLIS — Jamal Murray torched the Indiana Pacers for a season-best 52 points on Wednesday night, leading the Denver Nuggets to a 135-120 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The guard converted 19 of 25 attempts overall and an astonishing 10 of 11 from beyond the arc, matching the NBA’s single-game record for 3-point accuracy at 91% with a minimum of 10 tries. It marked just the third time in league history that a player logged at least 50 points, shot 75% or better and committed one turnover or fewer; Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins authored the other two performances since turnovers became an official statistic in 1977-78.
Murray, who was listed as questionable because of a sprained right ankle, finished three points shy of his career high. His outburst gave Denver its third 50-point game of the season, joining earlier efforts by Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokić.
Jokić nearly supplied another triple-double in front of NBA commissioner Adam Silver, ending with 24 points, eight rebounds and 13 assists. The two-time MVP, who owns a league-best 11 triple-doubles this year, fell two rebounds short of recording one on consecutive nights to open December.
Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Peyton Watson also reached double figures as the Nuggets won for the third time in five outings and posted their second-highest point total of the campaign.
Pascal Siakam paced injury-depleted Indiana with 23 points. Andrew Nembhard added 16 points and seven assists, and six Pacers scored in double digits, but the NBA’s top-scoring club dropped its second straight after recording its first back-to-back wins of the season.
Denver seized control early with a 13-0 burst that built a 27-17 lead in the opening quarter. Indiana closed to 50-45 midway through the second, only to see the Nuggets answer with a 22-3 push that kept the Pacers scoreless for more than four minutes and produced a 72-48 halftime cushion. Denver’s margin ballooned to 92-63 midway through the third before Indiana trimmed the deficit to 13 several times in the fourth, never getting closer.
Source: ESPN
