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Jamal Murray, playing against the Timberwolves again, is still punished without a suspension

Theo

It’s impossible to know where Jamal Murray’s head is at this moment.

After a miserable Game 2 in which an injured Murray shot 16 percent from the field and had an emotional outburst toward the referees, a suspension seemed likely for the Denver Nuggets star.

Instead, he must venture back into the hellscape that enraged him past the boiling point in the first place – the teeth of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ incredible defense.

On Tuesday night, the NBA announced that Murray would be fined $100,000 for dangerously throwing various objects in the direction of referee Mark Davis. Honestly, Murray probably deserved to miss at least a game, but it feels like the NBA punished the process more than the result (no one got hurt).

Given the way Murray has performed against the Timberwolves so far, his appearance in Game 3 on Friday night in Minneapolis is probably still punishment enough:

In two games against Minnesota, Murray shot just 9 of 34 from the field. He only has six assists and turned the ball over five times. Some of these terrible numbers are a bit misleading, as Murray struggled to initiate the Denver offense against Minnesota’s relentless pressure on the ball. (Paging Nikola Jokic!).

If Murray had the opportunity to actually get more free throws and more shots, the sample size suggests he wouldn’t play much better anyway.

Murray deserves credit for trying to play through a calf strain when his team needed him. His heroic 32-point performance against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the first round came after Nuggets team doctors advised him not to play. But it’s becoming apparent that a combination of that injury, which may be getting worse, and the Timberwolves’ elite defense has left Murray angry and frustrated with his poor play.

If Murray had been suspended for Game 3, he would have had two more days to rest his calf, with the possibility of looking significantly better in Game 4 on Sunday. It could have been a small blessing for Murray, even if Denver had fallen out of a disastrous 0-3 hole in the series. Instead, with the reigning champions’ season likely in jeopardy, a not-quite-100-percent Murray will have to venture into the belly of the beast once again, against a shark-like Minnesota team that knows he’s hurt and smells blood in the water.

The NBA definitely didn’t want it that way, but it’s hard not to see it as a punishment in itself.

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