NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 24, 2020

Jamal Murray

Denver Nuggets

Game 4: Postgame

Q. You guys got it down to within one possession at the end of the second half. How frustrating was it to never get beyond that?

JAMAL MURRAY: Frustrating. Don’t know how else to explain it. Not being able to take a lead, it's frustrating. It's tough. It's tough.

Q. The offensive rebounding tonight, especially the big ones they got down the stretch, how big of a difference did you feel that made?

JAMAL MURRAY: It was the difference.

Q. Is being guarded by LeBron James down the stretch the ultimate sign of respect? What did you learn from that?

JAMAL MURRAY: I mean, they switched AD on me to be on him, too. Obviously, with LeBron I do the same stuff I do when I see Caruso, when I see Rondo and KCP and Kawhi, Paul George and Pat Bev. I mean, I do the same thing. Appreciate the respect, but we’ve got to win the game.

Q. The rebounding that you mentioned, the second-chance points, how do you break down what was the disconnect there?

JAMAL MURRAY: We're just trying to be physical, trying to be physical and not pick up fouls. Trying to play physical. Dwight Howard, he's actually just trying to muscle his way in, not caring if he gets called for a foul because they have how many bigs over there. Joker is trying to do his part without fouling.

The guards have to rebound more. Only had three rebounds today. I got to get in there and be more physical, even take a couple. I don't think I had any fouls. I just got to go and hit somebody, try to help my teammates out.

Q. What kind of feedback did you get from the refs tonight?

JAMAL MURRAY: Yeah, respectfully, obviously, they're trying to do their job. I mean, I did get fouled on a few. We could see the replay clearly. The same thing when Rudy Gobert fouled me when we lost Game 4. They're going to do their part, going to try to do their job to the best of their ability.

My team shows respect any time you talk to them. You can ask any single one of.

Yeah, LeBron is going to go get his. But we just have to look ahead and play through it. Like I said, we're a young team. We're the younger team, youngest team, whatever we are. Look at where we're at. We're going to have to earn their respect if we're going to want to prevail.

Q. How do you feel after playing all these minutes in big games?

JAMAL MURRAY: I feel great. I just feel better when we win. I'm 23 years old. I thank God I'm healthy. Got a lot of gas left in the tank. Coach asked me if I needed a break, and I said no. I'm out there to win the game. Might need to play me more if we don't win the game. Just trying to do what I can.

Q. You've obviously been in this spot a few times. How do you feel about the ability to come back one more time?

JAMAL MURRAY: Like I said, these are all close games we're playing. Going to keep battling it out. We dropped Game 2, which hurt us. Today, we just had so many breakdowns throughout the game. We’ve just got to be better. We can't give them that many second-chance points while we're having breakdowns. It’s a two-edged sword with that one. Just got to be better ourselves, give ourselves a chance.