Quick question, NBA coaches: Do you really want to make Jamal Murray mad? Really?
Because that was the first reaction ’round the Grading The Week cubicles when we saw that the NBA’s Western Conference All-Star team was — again — minus The Blue Arrow, the secret sauce that made the NBA’s defending champs so tasty, and nasty, last spring.
We get that the West is loaded, sure. The Nuggets’ iconic guard missed 14 games, yada, yada. We get all that.
But what more does Kitchener’s finest have to do? Nikola Jokic’s favorite wingman heads into the weekend tying his career high in points per game (21.2) and rocking a personal best for assists per tilt (6.4).
The advanced metrics love him even more. Per Basketball-Reference.com, Murray’s offensive rating of 120 points produced per 100 possessions — his career average as of Friday was a strong 113 — was a career best. As was his win shares per 48 minutes (.149; career mark was .104), player efficiency rating (20.3; career was 16.7) and offensive box score plus/minus (4.4; career was 1.8).
On the back of No. 27’s historic playoff performance in the middle of last year, you’d have thought the coaches who chose the All-Star reserves would’ve learned their lessons. Apparently not.
All-Star selectors making Murray mad — D for them, A for us
Because when he feels a slight, even a tiny one, the Arrow doesn’t just get mad.
He gets even.
The Joker is the Nuggets’ rock, its high floor night after night. But in the big games, the big moments, the biggest stages, Denver goes as Murray goes.
The Arrow averaged 23.6 points per game for the month of January, averaging 28 in two wins over the Pacers while dropping 35 on the Celtics in Boston and another 35 on the Bucks at Ball Arena. Since December 15, he’s scored fewer than 19 points just six times, a span of 23 appearances. The Nuggs lost all six games.
An All-Star nod is one of the few pelts Murray hasn’t stuck up on the cabin wall yet as a pro. He’s also got a long, long, long memory. Which, if history serves, oughta scare the holy heck out of those coaches who make the NBA’s postseason field in a few months. The kids in the GTW offices would bet the farm that the All-Star Game’s loss turns into a trophy case’s gain.
Andy Lowry, Columbine football punching Super Bowl tickets — A.
While the Denver vibe on the Niners sideline makes San Fran an easy pick for Broncos Country to root for against the hated Chiefs, the McCaffreys, Shanahans and Lynches aren’t the only locals repping the Front Range in Vegas next weekend.
Longtime Columbine football coach Andy Lowry has been invited to the Big Game as the AFC winner of the NFL’s 2023 Don Shula High School Coach of the Year award, for which he was nominated by the Broncos and selected by the league for his “character, integrity, leadership, dedication to the community, commitment to player health and safety and on-field success,” per the NFL announcement.
Lowry, whose Rebels upset Cherry Creek in December to win the CHSAA Class 5 A football crown, is the first Colorado prep coach to receive the honor, which is cool enough. Even cooler? Lowry told The Post that he’s bringing his son Thomas and longtime assistants Doc Holliday and Tom Tonelli with him for his Super Bowl trek.
“I wouldn’t be here or have gotten this award without my staff,” Lowry told Grading The Week adjunct and Post reporter Kyle Newman, “so I wanted to give some love back to them by inviting a couple of them with me.”
GTW sends that love back atcha, Coach. Give Randy Gregory our best. Or don’t.