Jamal Murray's game-winner helps Denver Nuggets extend win streak with victory over Phoenix Suns

Kyle Irving

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Jamal Murray's game-winner helps Denver Nuggets extend win streak with victory over Phoenix Suns image

The Denver Nuggets escaped Phoenix with a last-second victory to extend the NBA's current best winning streak.

For a team that has mostly negative connotations surrounding their season thus far, Denver has now won seven games in a row and sit in second place in the Western Conference with an impressive record of 21-8.

All-Star centre Nikola Jokic has received the bulk of the team's criticism after getting out to a slow start this season. He may not have been the hero in the headlines in this one, but he finished with a triple-double of 22 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists – his fifth of the season.

This was also Jokic's 34th triple-double of his career, moving him up to 10th on the NBA's all-time triple-doubles list at a young age of 24 years old.


Typically, a triple-double in a win makes you the hero of the game, but Canadian guard Jamal Murray stole the spotlight from his teammate on that front.

Murray had a team-high 28 points shooting 12-for-19 (63.2%) from the field and 4-for-8 (50.0%) from 3-point land, but no bucket was bigger than the shot that decided the game.


With the game tied and the fate of the result in his hands, Murray got the switch he wanted and buried a filthy step-back jumper to win the game. He also added seven assists, three rebounds and two steals to the stat line.

The loss comes as a heartbreaker to the Suns who fall to 11-19 on the season, losing their seventh-consecutive game. Phoenix got out to a 5-2 start to the season and were tied for the second-best record in the West. Since then, they've gone 6-17 and are spiraling out of the playoff picture fast.

The Suns will have a chance to snap that losing streak later on this week when they take on the last place Golden State Warriors, while the Nuggets will look to extend their winning streak on NBA Christmas Day against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Kyle Irving

Kyle Irving Photo

You read that wrong – not Kyrie Irving. From Boston, graduated from the University of New Hampshire. Sixth season as a content producer for NBA.com's Global editions. Covering the NBA Draft has become his annual "dream come true" moment on the job. Irving has a soft spot for pass-first point guards, with Rajon Rondo and Steve Nash being two of his favorite players of all time.