Denver Nuggets talisman Jamal Murray feels the job is not done and revealed they have got their eyes set on the big prize after taking a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals against Los Angeles Lakers. The Nuggets continued their domination in the ongoing series with a 119-108 Game 3 victory, which is the biggest road win in their franchise history.
Murray, who was at his best in the fourth quarter of the second game, expects the Lakers to bounce back hard in the fourth game of the series, which will be do-or-die contest for LeBron James and Co.
Murray wants his team to stay focused and is hopeful they don’t drift away from their season-long objective of winning a first championship.
“Just keeping everybody in the moment,” Murray said. “Not letting it slip away. You need 16 wins to win a championship and we got five more to go and the Lakers are in our way and they are going to do everything in their power to come back and fight.”
The Nuggets have been at their absolute best against the Lakers and they have ticked the right boxes as a unit. Murray finished with 37 points whereas Nikola Jokic scored 15 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter against the Lakers.
In fact, Jokic had earlier struggled with fouls but made five out of his seven shots in the final frame. But the linchpin kept motivating and guiding his team from the sidelines when he was out of action.
“Nikola, you can’t keep him down for a whole game,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “The end of the game, him and Jamal were playing a two-man game. I have to [give] credit where credit is due: That was Nikola’s call.
“He said on the bench, let’s go to this play. Let me and Jamal play the whole side of the floor, and we’ll make the right reads. We milked that down the stretch. Coach Jokic did a great job tonight.”
Jokic also expects LeBron James’ Lakers to come back stronger in the fourth game of the series. The Serbian feels James is capable of doing anything on the court.
“To be honest, I’m not going to say that I’m scared, but I’m worried,” Jokic said of Game 4. “Because they have LeBron [James] on the other side, and he is capable of doing everything. We’re going to come here with the same mindset, same focus, and I think that’s going to put us in a situation to win a game.
The fourth game of the series will be played on Monday night.
