{"id":713774,"date":"2026-04-19T08:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713774\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:21:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:21:29","slug":"jamal-murray-defends-16-free-throws-after-timberwolves-coach-critiques-his-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713774\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamal Murray Defends 16 Free Throws After Timberwolves Coach Critiques His Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamal Murray<\/a> and the Denver Nuggets<\/a> took Game 1 of the first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> on Saturday, 116-105<\/a>. Murray led all scorers with 30 points on an inefficient 31.8% shooting from the field. Although he struggled to shoot, the one-time All-Star made the most of his attempts from the free-throw line and shot 16-for-16.<\/p>\n

His co-star, Nikola Jokic<\/a>, did most of the work in the game and punished the interior defense. He had a triple-double of 25 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists on 57.9% shooting. It was a statement win for Denver, as they hold the series lead to 1-0.<\/p>\n

Jamal Murray Believes He Deserves All of His Free Throws\"Denver<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27)David Gonzales-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Murray spoke to reporters after the game and defended himself from the criticism he received for shooting 16 shots at the charity stripe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I got fouled on every single one of them. So I don\u2019t know what everybody\u2019s talking about,\u201d Murray said. \u201cIt\u2019s real fouls. We were just being aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was in response to what Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch said about Murray’s free throws. Finch voiced out his frustration with the Nuggets star’s shots in front of reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 16 free throws from [Jamal] Murray is a head scratcher,\u201d Finch said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Wolves shot 19 free throws as a team, which was just three more than Murray. The Nuggets ended the game with 33 attempts at the line, with the Canadian guard leading the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we played really good defense. I thought, on him, a lot of those ones in the second quarter, we were there. We were physical, we were vertical,\u201d the coach commented. \u201cHe initiated the contact, he spills away, and then he gets rewarded for it. Jokic does the same thing. We\u2019ve got to be solid around that. 16 free throws is a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost as many as we\u2019ve shot all game.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is history between the Wolves and the Nuggets. This is the third time<\/a> both teams have faced each other in the playoffs. The last time they played a best-of-seven series was in 2024, and it lasted seven games. Unfortunately for Denver, Minnesota got the best of them, and they were eliminated in the second round.<\/p>\n

Fans can expect a physical battle between the two teams, given the familiarity between them from their previous games. Game 2 will be on Monday<\/a> at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

Related: Nikola Jokic\u2019s Numbers in Nuggets\u2019 10-Game Win Streak Are Unreal<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets took Game 1 of the first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,2026,187,1727,762,307,152,3954,6,253,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-713774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chris-finch","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-free-throw","12":"tag-jamal-murray","13":"tag-minnesota","14":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","15":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nikola-jokic","18":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116430405509993003","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}