On the day Jamal Murray underwent successful knee surgery to repair his torn left ACL, his team honored him with a gritty 1 point win in Portland, beating The Blazers, 106-105 at Moda Center. The Nuggets have won all 4 games they've played with "The Blue Arrow" but Joker said postgame they wish he was still out there, "I miss him, of course, he's a great player...I always say he gives us one dimension more in our game, but you know it's a next guy mentality," Jokic said. "We cannot feel sorry for ourselves, we just need to try to go out there and win the game."
Jokic paced Denver and was the leading scorer in the game with 25 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. But the whole starting unit was in synch, especially down the stretch. Following the win, Head Coach Michael Malone was visibly pleased with how his team performed against a team battling for their playoff positioning on the road, "When you have all 5 starters in double figures, and your bench plays well, this was truly a team effort.
Michael Porter Jr. had 17 points, Will Barton scored 14 and Aaron Gordon and Facu Campazzo each added a dozen. The newest Nugget, Austin Rivers who signed a 10-Day contract Tuesday, scored 5 points in just 13 minutes of action and couldn't hide his excitement to be with a team poised to make a deep playoff run, after spending the last 2 months off the basketball court. "Amazing...sometimes you don't know how great something is until it's taken away," Rivers said. "I've been home for the last month, just looking for the right spot. Obviously, this opened up, it just made all the sense for me, just considering where this team's at, how great of a team this is, how well coached they are, the direction they're headed...I'm just so thankful to be here and have the opportunity.
The Nuggets travel to The Bay Area Friday looking for some revenge when they play The Warriors, the last team to beat Denver, in the game they lost Murray for the year, April 12th.