Jamal Murray received some national recognition to show for the best start to a season in his career.
The Nuggets’ point guard was named Western Conference player of the week after leading the Nuggets to a 3-1 record with all three wins coming away from Denver. It was the first weekly honor of Murray’s nine-year career. The highlight was a 52-point performance against the Pacers when Murray made a career-best 10 3-pointers on 11 attempts. He finished 19 of 25 from the field in Indiana, grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists.
A couple of nights later, Murray dropped 23 points, 12 assists and five rebounds in a win over the Hawks before closing the week with 34 points, five assists and three rebounds against the Hornets in Denver’s 10th-consecutive road win. He scored 23 points in the first quarter against Charlotte.
The week started on a sour note. Murray left last Monday’s home loss to Dallas at halftime with an ankle sprain but still finished with 10 points, nine assists and four rebounds.
Heading into Thursday’s game at Sacramento, Murray is averaging 25 points while shooting better than 50% from the field, nearly 45% from 3 and 90% from the free throw line with 6.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game. All of those statistics are on pace to be new career highs for the 28-year-old who’s looking to make his first All-Star Game appearance.
Paul Millsap in 2018 was the last Nuggets player other than Nikola Jokic to earn player of the week honors. Boston wing Jaylen Brown was named Eastern Conference player of the week.