As far as two-headed monsters go in the NBA, there are few who are at par with the Denver Nuggets’ deadly duo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. The Milwaukee Bucks were faced with this tough test on Monday night, and it’s clear that they passed with flying colors.
The Bucks secured a marquee win against the defending champs, 112-95, marking the first time they logged back-to-back victories in the Doc Rivers era.
Milwaukee Bucks Coach Doc Rivers Speaks Out on Jamal Murray
Doc Rivers made his Bucks debut on January 29. His first order of business was to try and lead his new team to an away victory against the Nuggets, which was obviously a gargantuan task. True enough, Milwaukee fell short, 113-107.
Coach Doc remembers that game well. In particular, the veteran shot-caller still has visions of Murray’s 35-point explosion in that loss — something that the Bucks had to address in Monday’s rematch:
“He killed us, right, that night (in January),” Rivers said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We showed pick after pick after pick that we just melted on, melted on, melted on, melted on. Malik (Beasley) and those guys, they heard it enough. I mean they’re sick of it, obviously. But we showed them the game before the other night (against Charlotte) where we didn’t get picked at all. And then we followed it with just running into picks. Murray’s going to make tough shots anyway but if you’re going to run into a pick he’s really going to make ‘em. I thought we did a great job of getting over picks and fighting over.”
It appears that all the planning worked out. The Bucks did a commendable job on Murray on the defensive end, holding him down to just three points on 1-of-5 shooting with two turnovers in the first half.
Murray Unable to Return in Second Half
The Bucks knew they had some luck on their side after Murray was unable to return for the second half. The 6-foot-4 combo guard suffered a leg injury which forced him to sit out the remainder of the game.
Despite his poor performance in the first half, Murray is more than capable of turning things around. It would not have been beyond him to come out after the break and torch the Bucks in the second half. Fortunately for Milwaukee, they did not have to deal with Murray for the latter part of the game, and there’s no denying that this played a significant role in their victory.
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