Jamal Murray ends Lakers’ season; Thunder sweep Pelicans; concern for Celtics

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🏀 Good morning to everyone, but especially …

JAMAL MURRAY AND THE DENVER NUGGETS … 

Jamal Murray is a stone-cold killer, and his latest victim is the Lakers‘ entire season. Murray nailed a jumper with 3.6 seconds left as the final dagger in the Nuggets‘ 108-106 series-clinching Game 5 win.

• Murray, who finished with 32 points, also hit the game-winner in Game 2. He joins LeBron James (2018), Hedo Turkoglu (2009) and Robert Horry (2002) as the only players with multiple go-ahead shots in the final five seconds in a single postseason in the play-by-play era (since 1997).
• He is the only one to do it twice in the same series.
• Nikola Jokic, meanwhile, had 25 points and 20 rebounds, and Michael Porter Jr. had 26 points. It’s the second time in the last 35 years three Nuggets scored at least 25 points in the same playoff game.

This is what the Nuggets do. They can dominate and they can produce huge comebacks, but they mainly keep things close and then take opponents’ hearts late. They had the best net efficiency in clutch games this season. Jokic and Murray are magnificent. Next, they get a great test against the Timberwolves.

… AND ALSO THE OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Forget the bright future. The Thunder have arrived now. Oklahoma City completed the sweep of the Pelicans with a 97-89 win in which all five starters scored in double figures.

• Oklahoma City held New Orleans to 92 points or fewer in all four games, a stunning feat in today’s NBA, even given Zion Williamson‘s absence.
• No Pelicans player…