The Timberwolves held Jamal Murray to 12.5 points on 28.1% FG and 25% 3P through the first two games, a big reason they have a 2-0 lead in the series. How have they done it?
When an opposing coaching staff game plans for the Denver Nuggets, the majority of the focus is obviously on Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić, one of the deadliest offensive duos in recent NBA history. When both Murray and Jokić were on the floor in the regular season, the Nuggets recorded a 127.9 offensive rating in 2849 possessions, ranking in the 99th percentile, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Jokić is one of those all-time players who will put up numbers regardless of what the defense does. Either he kills you with scoring, his peerless passing, or a combination of both.
Even though he hasn’t made a single All-Star appearance, Murray can be the same way. When matching up against the Nuggets in the regular season or playoffs, it’s imperative that one of the two is held in check. If not, Denver turns into the team we saw lose only four games in the postseason last year en route to its first championship in franchise history.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have a history of battling against the Nuggets. Both teams are divisional foes and met in the first round of the NBA Playoffs last season. That series went only five games as the Nuggets proved they were head and shoulders above the Wolves, who were without Naz Reid (broken wrist) and Jaden McDaniels (broken hand).
However, things are much different this year. Much different.
After sweeping the Phoenix Suns in the first round, the Wolves headed to the Mile High City for a rematch with the team that bounced them in the first round last year. Unsurprisingly, Minnesota wasn’t favored to beat the Suns or the Nuggets. Still, the Wolves are headed back to the Twin Cities with a 2-0 lead on Denver and an immaculate 6-0 start to the playoffs, which was capped off by a statement, blowout, demoralizing 106-80 win in Game 2 on Monday.
The Nuggets were held to their lowest point total of the season in Game 2, which came while the Wolves were without Rudy Gobert — who was awarded his fourth Defensive Player of the Year trophy on Tuesday — because his girlfriend gave birth to their baby boy Romeo Monday morning in Minneapolis.
A massive part of the defensive success can be explained by simply looking at the box score.
JAMAL MURRAY GAME-WINNER.
Nugs complete 20-pt comeback pic.twitter.com/UnY7ezrTD8
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 23, 2024
Murray averaged 23.6 points on 40% from the floor against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round, featuring two game-winners. Even though he wasn’t at 100% because of a calf strain injury, the former Kentucky Wildcat made his impact felt when the games mattered most. However, in the first two games against the Wolves, Murray is averaging 12.5 points on 28.1% from the floor and 25% from deep while being a combined -38 in 69 minutes.
“I’m not going to make no excuses, bro,” Murray said after Game 2 vs Minnesota. “Everybody has got nagging injuries. Everybody is playing through something at this point of the season. My calf is no different than anybody else on the team or in the league, honestly. Obviously, it sucks, but it’s not something that I enjoy talking about as part of the loss.”
His health has played a significant role in Jamal’s ability to explode off screens and get past his defender — two weapons he relies heavily on — but Minnesota’s backcourt has collectively put him in hell, and his emotions are starting to boil over as a result.
Not only did Jamal Murray throw a heat pack on the court, but he throw a towel as well a few plays early at 4:57 in the 2nd quarter pic.twitter.com/nCucPcGiul
— Ryan Eichten (@REichten) May 7, 2024
Before the series shifts to Minneapolis for the first time on Friday night, let’s examine a few specific reasons leading to the Blue Arrow’s demise so far in Round 2.
Mixing Up the Looks
The playoffs are all about adjustments. Seeing a team for up to seven straight games doesn’t mean each contest will be the same. In fact, schemes and outcomes can vary drastically from game to game. But if a team has succeeded with certain things, they will run with it until the opposition develops a counterpunch.
Against the Suns, the Timberwolves made a few changes to their defensive matchups, which ultimately led to their total domination on that side of the ball. Instead of Karl-Anthony Towns matching up with Greyson Allen, Mike Conley took that duty while Towns switched on the future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant. The Wolves took Allen out of every game he played in, and Towns made life as difficult as possible for Durant. Even though KD averaged 26.8 points on 55.2% from the floor and 41.7% from deep, most of his attempts were positive for the Wolves because they isolations ending in mid-range shots. Those took away from Phoenix’s ball movement, thus keeping Devin Booker and Bradley Beal out of the mix for stretches.
Minnesota’s coaching staff hasn’t drastically changed their matchups against the Nuggets. Still, they’ve been mixing and matching the looks that Murray sees — not allowing him to get comfortable or settle into any groove.
Here were Murray’s most frequent defensive matchups in the regular season, complete with his stats against them, courtesy of NBA.com.
- McDaniels: 19:32 matchup mins | 89.2 partial poss. | 30 pts | 11/27 FG
- Edwards: 4:13 matchup mins | 21.2 partial poss. | 7 pts | 3/5 FG
- Alexander-Walker: 3:12 matchup mins | 14.1 partial poss. | 0 pts | 0/5 FG
Jaden McDaniels was far and away the most called-upon defender against Murray in the regular season. Both of his matchup minutes logged and partial possessions defended rank second in the NBA, only behind Oklahoma City Thunder wing Luguentz Dort.
While Jaden is an incredible defender and has the chops to go down as one of the most versatile defenders in NBA history, he has had trouble against certain isolation-heavy guards, with Murray being on the top of that list, as the matchup stats above illustrate.
Off the jump in Game 1, the Timberwolves switched up their looks. Instead of McDaniels defending Jamal, Anthony Edwards took that challenge with Jaden matching up against 6-foot-10 forward Michael Porter Jr. Instead of relying on those matchups throughout the majority of the game, Minnesota kept things fresh.
Below are Murray’s matchup stats through the first two games against the Wolves via NBA.com.
- Alexander-Walker: 7:53 matchup mins | 39.7 partial poss. | 10 pts | 3/7 FG
- McDaniels: 8:02 matchup mins | 33.7 partial poss. | 0 pts | 0/4 FG
- Edwards: 6:20 matchup mins | 30.3 partial poss. | 3 pts | 1/5 FG
As we can see, the matchup minutes and partial possessions are very spread out. The Wolves’ capability to divide and concur in defending a player who averages 24.5 points over his career in the playoffs is a strength unique to them. Murray can only prepare and gameplan so much when a new player defends him almost every other possession. He can only watch so much film, and he can only make so many in-game adjustments.
Minnesota is set up always to have a counter for Jamal, but its success against the Kitchener, Ontario native goes far deeper than matchups. Simply put, no matter who is defending him, Murray doesn’t have any space at any point in the game to find a groove.
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Locking down on the Ball + Off Screens
In the regular season, according to Synergy, Murray averaged 0.97 points per possession in isolation, ranking him 25th in the NBA with a 61.1 percentile (minimum of 1.8 possessions per game). Those aren’t head-turning numbers, but he still ranked above Trae Young, Brandon Ingram, Jalen Brunson, Durant, and Edwards, to name a few. Without a doubt, Murray’s isolation numbers would be higher if he didn’t share the court with Jokić for 76% of his total minutes played this season. However, he is still a threat with the ball in his hands, whether coming off a screen or in isolation, so physical on-ball defense is needed to contain him.
The first example comes from the first possession of Game 1.
Right away, Conley denies the pass to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope by fronting. Aaron Gordon defers to Murray, who dumps the ball off to Jokić. Once the Joker realizes his chances of connecting on a low-post shot aren’t great and the shot clock is dwindling, he returns the ball to Jamal at the top of the key. Murray tries to get any sort of space with head fakes and a quick step back but cannot because Ant is hounding him. In one final attempt to score, Jamal goes back to the top of the key and attacks inside to his left. However, Edwards said no yet again, using his hands well.
The play ends with an offensive three-second and Edwards nodding his head, setting the tone early and preluding what was to come the rest of the first half as Murray was held scoreless for the first time this season on 0-of-5 from the floor in 14:38 minutes.
Shifting gears to the fourth quarter of Game 1, Murray is yet again operating in isolation; this time, his defender isn’t Edwards, McDaniels, or Alexander-Walker. Instead, Conley logged only 1:29 matchup minutes against Jamal through the first two games.
Once Gordon realizes Murray has a smaller defender on him, he places himself in the weak-side dunker’s spot while Christian Braun, Porter Jr., and Jokić are spaced from deep. Minnesota Mike finds himself on a deserted island with no reinforcements. Still, he keeps close to the Wilson ball as Tom Hanks did in Castaway and offers up some tremendous defense against Jamal, who already has seven points in the quarter.
Continuing with stellar defense in mismatch situations, we have Naz Reid’s effort in Game 2.
Off the screen, Murray gets the mismatch he wants, extending Reid to the 3-point line, and every other Nugget spaced on the weak side. Monte Morris, Kyle Anderson, and Daishen Nix begin yelling at Naz once he gets the matchup, seemingly to hype him up. Big Jelly responds to his teammates by shuffling his feet, taking a low-post blow from Murray, rejecting his shot impressively, and staring him down after the fact.
We’ve talked so much about Reid’s growth over the last few seasons. He’s slimmed his body down and looks like a completely new player from when the Wolves signed him in 2019 out of LSU. Typically, his flashy layups, crossovers, or consistent 3-point shooting lead us to converse about his development, but defensive plays like the one above signify far more growth from the 6-foot-9 forward.
If he can consistently thrive in mismatch situations while improving his low-post defensive IQ, Minnesota’s entire rotation will be a defensive force to be reckoned with.
Murray has yet another mismatch in this clip, with Kyle Anderson defending him beyond the 3-point line. And again, he is unable to do anything with it.
When Murray attacks into the paint, Minnesota’s defense collapses, forcing him into a turnover — textbook defense. However, before that could even transpire, Anderson stayed connected to Jamal outside, battled through a screen, and temporarily poked the ball free, which slowed No. 27 down enough to give Slow-Mo time to get back and take away the chance of a pull-up mid-range attempt.
According to Cleaning the Glass, 22% of Murray’s attempts per game in the regular season were in the long mid-range (outside of 14 feet and within the 3-point line), ranking in the 98th percentile among guards. He loves to come off screens and will kill the opposing defense from the mid-range if they allow him to. Fighting over screens isn’t enough to remove his offense from that range. High levels of physicality and decision-making are essential. This is also where his limited explosion impacts him; it makes it easier for the Wolves’ length to prevent him from getting into the mid-range for open jumpers out of pick-and-roll.
This clip resulted in a foul, but it demonstrates exactly what it takes to limit Murray’s damage off PnRs with Jokić, who frequently gets away with illegal screens.
Like he has done all season, but particularly in the playoffs, Alexander-Walker picks up Jamal at the center-court logo, forcing Denver to initiate its half-court offense from a less-than-ideal spot on the floor. Could NAW have gone under the screen because of how far away from the hoop he was? Sure, but that isn’t in his DNA.
When Alexander-Walker fights over the pick, Reid initially plays a little help defense. He doesn’t commit to the ball handler all the way, but he fakes as if he is to potentially make Murray second guess attempting a mid-range or kicking the ball to the Joker outside.
That split-second of uncertainty allows NAW to remain with Jamal on the attack and take away any chance for an uncontested layup.
Here’s another prime example of stellar PnR defense coupled with a team-wide desire to come away with the defensive stop from Game 2.
Unsurprisingly, Alexander-Walker fights as hard as he can to get over an illegal screen from Jokić. Reid steps up to take away the floater before retreating back to Nikola on the roll. Murray backsteps into what would have been a wide-open long mid-range attempt, but for some reason, MPJ is spacing four feet beyond the 3-point line, making Jaden’s decision to step up and contest Jamal’s attempt a very easy one.
From that point, the Wolves — who already packed the paint — make Jokić’s putback attempt incredibly difficult. They are unable to come away with the defensive rebound, but Minnesota’s ridiculously impressive flurry of defense, which was capped off by Naz’s block, more than made up for it.
That entire sequence sums up the first two games almost to a tee.
This example includes a complete team effort from the Wolves as Murray rolls off the double screen from Justin Holiday and Gordon.
Denver’s movement was snappy in this play. Jamal quickly attacked into the lane, and as soon as Reid, Towns, and McDaniels collapsed in the paint with Reggie Jackson wide-open in the left corner, he whipped the ball to the open man. Jaden responded by quickly rotating back to the corner and taking the triple away from Jackson.
Minnesota’s rotations have been on another level this season. Not very often does a shot go uncontested because of poor rotations or defenders losing sight of their man. Sure, being loaded with lengthy defenders helps in that regard, but the Wolves’ incredible knowledge of where to be and when to be there is the overarching reason.
To wrap up, I would be remiss not to include these clips, both of which put the figurative cherry on top of what the Timberwolves’ defense is all about. In the first example, Murray is doubled at the half-court, and in the second, Alexander-Walker simply contains Jamal’s initial attempt to get past him but smiles because NAW is on him “like braces on crooked teeth,” said Jamal Crawford on the TNT broadcast.
The Wolves head back to Minneapolis for Games 3 and 4 with a 2-0 lead. They are now second only to the Boston Celtics for the highest odds of winning the NBA Championship. Like it has all season, their defense is a massive reason for success.
Never take what you see, Wolves fans, for granted. This is one of, if not the best, defensive teams in NBA history, and it boils down to having length, of course, but also players who are all working toward one goal on defense.