NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 22, 2020

Jamal Murray

Denver Nuggets

Game 3: Postgame

Denver Nuggets 114, Los Angeles Lakers 106

Q. Coach Malone just said that last offseason you came to him and said it bothered you that he thinks you were an inconsistent player. Why did that bother you so much? What have you done to correct that narrative?

JAMAL MURRAY: I don't know how to explain it. My whole energy, my whole approach to the game. Not getting down if I miss a couple shots. I missed a couple free throws today, which that never happens, should never happen. But just trying to be aggressive with my shot, be aggressive going to the rim, being aggressive for my teammates, let them know what I'm doing.

The most important part, the energy I bring. When I'm talking to my teammates, being the vocal leader, going up and down, pushing everyone, they tend to follow.

It was fun to see them have a lot of fun today like they did. We came up with the win. Hopefully we can keep that play up.

Q. Tonight on NBA Twitter live, CJ [McCollum] was talking about how he thinks you guys not winning that series against them last year helped you have a bigger chip on your shoulder. How much do those experiences play on how you have grown as a team?

JAMAL MURRAY: A lot. Sometimes it seems they're just better than you. There's sometimes guys have the talent to do it, the teams have talent to do it.

I just felt like we had a legit chance to win that series. It just came down to our mistakes, self-inflicted wounds that we had, breakdowns we couldn't afford. We had them this series, too, but tried to correct them earlier and be more prepared for stuff.

Definitely that one Playoff experience that we had, we can always look back to it and remember that feeling because we don't want to lose when we know we have the talent to win. I think that's all we tried to change moving forward.

Q. Two 3-1 deficits, being down 2-0 in the series, we talk about your resilience as a team. How much of it is every game you learn more about a team, what's going to work?

JAMAL MURRAY: Hand-in-hand. Two parts to that. You definitely learn more about your opponent, what to try to look for, tendencies and all that.

Like I said, we had Game 2. I thought we played great in Game 2. We just had, like I said, a couple breakdowns that really hurt us. We feel like we should be up 2-1 right now, to be honest.

But we're going to move on to Game 4. Clippers series we dropped I think Game 3. Like I said, just taking care of stuff that we can control, whether it's turnovers, communications, switches, rebounding. Areas that we should control, we got to do that if we want to win.

If we're consistent in our play, like we touched on earlier, we can win a lot of games, put a lot of pressure on other teams.

Q. When you have one day between games, you lose Game 2 in that brutal fashion, what did yesterday look like in terms of getting your minds right again? How did you get there?

JAMAL MURRAY: It happens. Always tougher to lose. Most important part of it is to bounce back with the right mentality, not let it get you down.

I thought today we had a hit-first mentality especially in the first quarter. Kind of took off from there. We got everybody into a groove. Guys were playing at a higher rate, we were rebounding, running. We just had a flow.

Those games hurt, but it feels better when you bounce back the way we did tonight.

Q. Did Game 2 of this series remind you a little bit of that game you dropped against the Clippers early in the previous series, maybe it actually made you think that you can beat them if you just close, play the way you can play?

JAMAL MURRAY: Yeah, like I said, Game 3 we felt like we should have won that. That wasn't anything that they did. It was stuff we did that messed us up.

Game 2, I felt like it was the same thing. We had a great defensive game. We were making shots and all that. But like I said, we didn't do the necessary things to win the game in the end. That one hurt.

Like I said, we bounce back the way we do, we'll be fine. We're back in the series. Forget about this and move on to Game 4.

Q. From 97-77 it became 101-98. What allowed you to settle down in the final few minutes? Where did you find the two threes that made the distance that they couldn't overcome?

JAMAL MURRAY: I think they just kind of picked up their aggressiveness. I didn't think I had a good game in total, to be honest with you. I think I didn't really get everybody organized. Had too many turnovers. Too many live-ball turnovers that led to easy two points. It happened a second time.

I thought there were stints in the game where I just could have been a lot better. I can't have those, like I said, breakdowns for them to come back into the game. Even when they're playing good defense or of what it was, I just got to play better.

Got to take care of the ball, be shot ready like we all were today, we'll be fine. I got to have a better game if we want to win.