The Denver Nuggets and Jamal Murray sure know how to puff their chest out at home.
Getting set to head to the line with victory in hand, the Kitchener Ont. native tried to pump up the crowd in the face of Luke Walton, and the Los Angeles Lakers head coach was having none of it.
“I felt like, for the second time we’ve played here, Murray had been a little disrespectful at the end of the game,” Walton told reporters after the game. “Just some trash talking towards our guys.”
Isaiah Thomas got in Murray’s ear as he shot his free-throws, before Walton stepped onto the court, appearing ready to physically have a go at the Denver point guard.
Walton was held back and nothing came of the incident, but they made it apparent they haven’t forgotten what caused this animosity more than three months ago.
Late in the Denver Nuggets’ win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 2, with the game already in hand once again, Jamal Murray decided to showboat a little.
As a sporting gesture, teams usually dribble out the final seconds to avoid running up the score and “embarrassing” the opponent. While Murray stayed true to the dribbling aspect of this, he decided to dribble around Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball with his back turned.
The Nuggets are a confident bunch at home with their 25-10 record, but are just 11-20 on the road.
Though Ball was unaware of what had just transpired, his teammates were quick to react and wasted no time making their way towards Murray. While the 20-year-old point guard has refused to get caught up in the controversy, it’s clear his team and coach think otherwise.
They’ll have another chance at revenge on Tuesday night in Los Angeles when the two teams meet for the fourth and final time this season.
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