The Denver Nuggets took a 1-0 lead in their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 116-105 win at Ball Arena on Saturday. The free-throw disparity was a big talking point in this one, and Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch made it clear in his postgame press conference that he couldn’t understand why Nuggets guard Jamal Murray kept going to the line.
“I mean, the 16 free throws from Murray is a headscratcher,” Finch said, via the Timberwolves.
The Nuggets had a massive 33-19 advantage in free-throw attempts on the night. Murray shot nearly half of those, as he went 16-16 from the charity stripe. The Canadian had more makes than the Timberwolves, who went 14-19.
“I thought we played really good defense on him,” Finch said. “A lot of those ones in the second quarter, we were there, we were physical, we were vertical. He initiates the contact, he spills away, and then he gets rewarded for it. [Nikola] Jokic does the same thing. We got to be solid around that. But 16 free throws is a lot. 16 free throws, it’s almost as many as we shot all game.”
Half of Murray’s free throw attempts came in the second quarter. The one-time All-Star went 8-8 to get to 14 points in the period.
The Nuggets were down 10 at the end of the first quarter, and Murray’s flurry helped them enter halftime tied 62-62. The 29-year-old would then score another 13 in the second half to finish the night with 30 points (7-22 FG), five rebounds, and seven assists.
As you’d expect, Murray expressed surprise at all the fuss over his free throws in his postgame press conference.
“I mean, I thought I got fouled on every single one of them,” Murray said, via DNVR Sports. “So I don’t know what everybody’s talking about. It’s real fouls.”
Murray only averaged 5.2 free throw attempts per game in the regular season, so this would have been a welcome change for him. He actually set a new career-high for a single game with 16 attempts here.
While Murray got calls, Nikola Jokic did not. Finch brought up Jokic there, but the Serb only attempted one free throw and made it. The three-time MVP wasn’t at his best in the first half against the Timberwolves, but played better as the game went on.
Jokic finished with 25 points (11-19 FG), 13 rebounds, 11 assists, and one steal on the night. This was his 22nd triple-double in the playoffs, and he’s inching closer to Magic Johnson’s all-time record of 30.
As for the Timberwolves, they were led by Anthony Edwards, who put up 22 points (7-19 FG), nine rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks. Edwards was listed as questionable for this game due to right knee injury maintenance, and didn’t quite look right. He had missed 11 of their last 14 regular-season games with this knee issue, and the Timberwolves are not going to win this series if he isn’t at his best moving forward.
Edwards will get some time to rest his knee as Game 2 will be held at Ball Arena on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ET.
