Boston Celtics Are No Match For Jamal Murray’s 48 Points in 115-107 Denver Win

The Boston Celtics lost back-to-back games for the first time this season Monday night, getting scorched by Jamal Murray for 48 points as they lost to the Denver  Nuggets, 115-107.

Jamal Murray scored 14 of his team’s first 16 points and 19 of their last 27 on his way to a career-high 48 points, leading the Denver Nuggets to a 115-107 win over the Boston Celtics at the Pepsi Center Monday night.

After losing on a last-second shot in Indiana, Boston dropped its second game in a row to open a five-game road trip and moves to 6-4 on the season. Denver continues to play like one of the best teams in the league, moving to 9-1 on the season with wins over the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics now.

Boston got off to a great start, attacking the paint and sharing the ball, and led by as many as 18 points in the first quarter. After a first quarter in which the Celtics assisted on 12 of their 15 made baskets, however, they had just 10 assists in the final three quarters.

In the early going,  Jaylen Brown (15 points) proved too much for Denver’s smaller guards, regularly blowing past Gary Harris and the other Nuggets guards, getting deep into the paint and pinging the ball back out to the perimeter.

The Celtics also worked out to make Nuggets center Nikola Jokic guard in space, and Al Horford ran his usual point center routine, dropping four dimes in the first eight minutes of the game. Horford finished the game with 12 points and 6 assists.

Kyrie Irving clearly entered the game knowing he could score in pick-and-roll and isolation whenever he wanted, evidenced by his 16 first-half points on 7-for-9 shooting. In the second quarter, Irving went iso heavy, going right at Murray or forcing Jokic into switches.

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1059640201067151360

Irving’s individual offense was fantastic–he scored 31 points on 13-for-17 shooting–but after such great offensive flow in the first quarter, it had the unintentional effect of stalling the rest of team, and the Celtics were never quite able to retrieve it.

Of course, that’s not to say Irving was responsible for the offensive slow down. After making 4-of-7 three-pointers in the first quarter, Boston made just 5-of-24 the rest of the way. The Celtics only attempted 12 free throws, making 10.

A lot of the Celtics misses were open shots, but they also settled much more for individual offense than when they were building the lead in the early going by making the extra pass and pushing into the paint.