Each NBA team’s most clutch player of all-time

Most clutch player in Denver Nuggets history: Jamal Murray

The Denver Nuggets are a franchise with a long history of offensive powerhouses, from Dan Issel and David “Skywalker” Thompson to Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony. The current high octane Denver offense is run by the best passing center in NBA history, Nikola Jokic. Yet when it comes to sheer ice-in-his-veins shooting in the clutch, Jamal Murray takes the crown.

Murray gave hints of his incredible clutch ability early in his career, including a clutch game-winning shot for a Game 7 victory in 2019. Yet his ascension to the Rocky Mountain summit of clutchness came in the 2020 playoffs in the NBA Bubble.

Playing without multiple starters due to COVID-19, the Denver Nuggets took on the Utah Jazz. Murray had an inconsistent first few games, and the Nuggets found themselves down 2-1 in the series. Murray began to catch fire from there, dropping 50, 42, and 50 points in consecutive games to force a Game 7, where Jokic propelled them to a series win.

As impressive as that historic scoring burst was, the pressure only increased in the next round against the contending LA Clippers.

Key Moment: Down 3-1 in their second round series with the LA Clippers in 2020, the Nuggets battled back to force a Game 7. Jamal Murray absolutely came to play. He dropped 40 points on the Clippers, who threw some of the league’s best perimeter defenders onto him, to no avail.

In total, Murray lit the world on fire in the 2020 playoffs. He scored 40 or more points four times, including 50 points twice. The higher the pressure was, the more he stepped up. On the biggest stage, under the brightest lights, Jamal Murray balls out.