“Where have you been?”: Shaquille O’Neal gets Jamal Murray’s direct response with 1st half performance after being called out

NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal proved WRONG by Nuggets star Jamal Murray in recent matchup against the Mavs in the NBA.

“Where have you been?”: Shaquille O’Neal gets Jamal Murray’s direct response with 1st half performance after being called out

Shaquille O'Neal and Jamal Murray

The recent segment of the NBA on TNT was quite fascinating. Most particularly regarding two individuals. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and the Denver Nuggets star Jamal Murray. As NBA analysts, it’s their role to criticise players performing badly in the league. This is exactly what O’Neal did about Murray’s performance for the Nuggets lately.

O’Neal called out Murray to get more out of him at the beginning of the evening before his matchup in the pregame show.

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Where have you been, Mr. Murray? I promise you that if you reach the level that earned you a championship, you will be champions again.

Shaq declared

Little did he know, Murray delivered just after O’Neal’s words. Murray may not have heard the big man, but he certainly did respond, scoring 32 points in the first half to help the Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks 71-45 at the break. With a season-high 45 points from Murray, the Nuggets maintained their momentum in the second half and won 118-99 to extend their winning streak to four straight.

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“If he plays like this, along with Westbrook & The Joker, they will be champions.”

Shaquille O’Neal said post-game

Michael Malone benched Nikola Jokic for the fourth quarter due to the Nuggets’ blowout. Jamal Murray was on track to surpass his career-high of 50. It would have been entertaining to surpass it, but the Nuggets needed to save their legs for their next game.

Notably, Murray was sidelined on Sunday due to knee issues that had kept him out of the second half of Friday’s game. Aside from this, Murray is now one of only three Nuggets players to reach 30 or more in a half since 1997, along with Nick Van Exel, Allen Iverson, and Jokic. Both Murray and Jokic will be looking to build on this win going forward into the season.

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Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray shine against the Dallas Mavericks

Jamal Murray stepped up for his side in an important matchup against the Dallas Mavericks. However, the Mavs were without their star man, Luka Doncic. Given that, Murray stole all the headlines as he dropped a whopping 45 points on the Mavs. Not only that, his teammate and Nuggets star Nikola Jokic entered the NBA’s record books once again.

Jokic recorded his 5,000th career assist, the most by a center since Kareem Abdul Jabbar, as part of his triple-double of 10 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists against the Mavs. With his career stats, Jokic has surpassed Larry Bird by 90 games to become the fastest player to amass 15,000 points, 7,500 rebounds, and 5,000 assists.

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Thanks to Murray, Jokic played just 29 minutes on Tuesday and cruised. Notably, all of the other players in the league had at least seven more years than Jokic has so far, making the three-time MVP the sixth player in the NBA’s history to reach those totals plus 500 blocks.