PORTLAND — After seven minutes, Jamal Murray needed to sit down.
Some half an hour after draining the game-winning, step-back 3-pointer over former teammate Jerami Grant to snap Denver’s three-game losing streak, Murray was holding court among a throng of reporters eager to dissect his moment.
But after seven minutes of self-analysis, Murray needed to exhale and take a seat. He’d tied his season-high with 35 minutes, including fourteen consecutive to close the game. He’d saved 14 of his 21 points for the fourth quarter, when he and Damian Lillard traded uppercuts like it was May and not the beginning of December.