They waited 114 days. Over 164,000 minutes of game time.
It lasted just five minutes and seven seconds.
The Denver Nuggets starting five began the season healthy and playing well together for the first 10 games of the season. They were 8-2. Nuggets Nation was hyped.
Then the injury bug bit. And bit again. And again. One by one, starters were lost. First Aaron Gordon hurt a hamstring. Then Christian Braun with an ankle. Then Cam Johnson with a knee. Then three-time MVP Nikola Jokic injured his knee (and in the very next game, his back-up Jonas Valančiūnas hurt a hamstring.) Four starters out. The last starter standing was newly minted All-Star Jamal Murray.
Murray and a makeshift lineup that could have very well been playing in the G-League, somehow someway won 10 of 16 contests without Joker. Then he and Valančiūnas came back. Braun finally got healthy. Gordon – who came back too early during that 16-game stretch – went out again, and blossoming forward Peyton Watson was lost to a hamstring as well. Johnson came back but couldn’t find his shooting touch.
And Joker showed some rust, too.
Through it all, Murray shined. In fact, the 6’4” point guard was – and is – having the best season of his 10-year career, averaging better than 25 points per game, just over seven assists and more than four rebounds per, while shooting better than 48% from the floor. In his last five games, Murray is shooting 54% from three point land, and averaging better than 34 points per game.
Then, against the New York Knicks, with Nuggets fans having waited those 114 days for everyone else to get healthy and have the starting five reunited, it happened again. Late in the first half, with the starters having played together for all of five minutes, Murray fell victim to the bug.
While attempting to guard the Knicks’ OG Anunoby smack dab in the middle of the paint, Murray was pushed back into Jokic, stepped on the big man’s foot and suffered a left ankle sprain. He had to be helped to the locker room by teammates.
The Nuggets showed no signs of life after Murray left the court. The Knicks pounded the hosts 142-103, handing the Nuggets their worst home loss since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen led the Chicago Bulls to a 111-72 rout of a Nuggets team that would go one to win a grand total of 11 games during that 1997-98 season.
But during a season when very little has gone right on the injury front, it appears that the injury to Murray isn’t a long term kind of thing. On Sunday, it was announced that Murray is being listed as “questionable” for Denver’s tilt at Oklahoma City on Monday night
Head Coach David Adelman wasn’t gloom and after the game, striking a more optimistic tone based on Murray’s injury history. It appears he’s correct.
Whether or not Murray takes the floor against OKC, he’s going to be badly needed for the immediate future if Denver is to remain in contention for a top-four playoff seed. The Nuggets are facing a brutal stretch of games. After beating the Lakers and losing big to the Knicks, Denver is 39-25 and in the middle of a critical seven-game stretch, including the Thunder Monday night before they return home to face Houston. Then they travel to San Antonio and to LA for a rematch against the Lakers. Then it’s back home to face the Philadelphia 76ers and a quick trip to Memphis on a back-to-back in a make up game that was snowed out in January.
Without a healthy Murray, it’s a stretch that would likely bury a lot of playoff hopes.