Jamal Murray took the road less traveled to his 50-point game on Friday. In fact, he took a road completely untraveled.
Murray scored 50 points in the Denver Nuggets’ 120-103 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Amazingly, he did so without attempting a single free throw. He became the first ever player to score 50 points in a game without attempting a free throw.
Murray shot an impressive 21/25 from the field and went 8/10 on threes. It was his sharp outside shooting that did the trick.
Incredibly, the Elias Sports Bureau says that Murray’s 84 percent mark from the field is second only to Wilt Chamberlain for the highest percentage in a 50-point game in the shot-clock era.
While Murray was on fire, most of his teammates were content to feed him the ball. Nikola Jokic ended up with 10 assists and only attempted eight field goals. Michael Porter Jr., who had 22 points, was the only other Nuggets player with double-digit shot attempts.
Jokic had a great quote about Murray, comparing him to a flamethrower.
Nikola Jokic on Jamal Murray:
“Today he was a flamethrower. Hot, hot.”
— Mike Singer (@msinger) February 20, 2021
Nuggets coach Michael Malone was blown away as well by the performance.
“To do it as efficiently as he did it is really remarkable,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone. “That’s an incredible stat line.”
It was incredible, and it’s also the first of its kind.
