When the Hawks talk about Dejounte Murray, the word “tough” often gets associated with him. In the Hawks’ 123-122 win over the Celtics on Thursday, Murray gritted out any lower back soreness and fed off of his team.
“Yeah, he’s tough is what it comes down to,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said after Thursday’s game. “He’s just tough, and he’s mentally tough.”
Playing the entire first and third quarters Thursday, and despite getting only 6:12 of rest in the game, Murray scored a career-best 44 points on a career-high 44 shot attempts. He showed few signs between officials’ whistles that his back was a problem.
He scored all 11 of the Hawks’ points in overtime, working his way inside to make three consecutive jumpers over Kristaps Porzingis before nailing a wide-open jumper at the top of the key.
Murray had the hot hand, and the Hawks continued to feed him, though the Celtics homed in on him, deploying their top defenders in Derrick White and Jrue Holiday.
Murray took the challenge, ready to fight through White as he trapped him on the sideline. But he drew a foul off White and fell out of bounds and onto his back.
Unlike in regulation, Murray stayed on the ground a little longer and limped to the Hawks’ bench. He fell again on another jump-shot attempt with 13.9 seconds left and had to roll his back out before his teammates were able to help him up.
He kept grinding, and after the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown made a go-ahead jumper, Murray delivered the deciding blow. Out of the timeout, he isolated Holiday before turning and pulling up to create space and made a jumper from midrange. He left 0.1 seconds on the clock.
“It’s all right here,” Murray said after the game. “It’s in me. I’m just built for these moments. I’m just a confident guy.”
While Murray played with confidence, his toughness helped to power his teammates. But his tenacity doesn’t come as a surprise to them.
Bogdanovic remembers Murray hopping into a series of one-on-one games with teammates who did not play a high volume of minutes. The battles came after the Hawks had a very tough practice, but Murray wanted to compete.
He was like, ‘(Onyeka Okongwu), I gotta get in,’” Bogdanovic said. “And he was tired. (He) got in and played everyone one-on-one. I think he won two spots. That says a lot about him. How competitive he is. Whenever I see, he’s questionable, I’m like, ‘he’s good.’”
Murray has missed only three games this season and has played a pivotal role in helping to steady the Hawks’ ship with injuries to several players in the rotation, including Trae Young. The Hawks have gone 10-8 since the All-Star break but have had injuries to Young, Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson and Okongwu.
But Murray, an NBA All-Star two seasons ago, has strung together a strong March.
He’s averaged 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 9.2 assists and 2.3 steals all in 38 minutes. But has done so efficiently, making 46.3% of his shots from the floor and 39.7% of his 9.7 3-point attempts per game in the month.
With the Hawks’ recent surge, they’ve closed the gap slightly with the Bulls for the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks sit one game back from the Bulls, with a matchup scheduled for Monday night in Chicago.
But Murray and the Hawks have taken everything in stride focusing on one game at a time. So, they haven’t looked too far ahead, with much of their focus on the Bucks on Saturday night.
“I mean, we take it one game at a time, honestly,” Murray said. “Just in the situation we’re in, with a lot of guys out, with the guys we do have, we’re sticking together. And like I said, it taking one game at a time. And obviously that’s (the Celtics) the best team in the league right now.
“So, it feels good just to get a win. Like, we won last night, (but) what if we dropped that game. It could hurt us, you know? So at the end of the day, every game is important. Obviously (Thursday) was another important game. We got a win. So we got to get rest and get ready for Saturday.”
But the Hawks will lean on Murray, and the veteran guard will lean on them, too.
“My teammates, we’re not tanking,” Murray said. “We’re not trying to lose. We’re trying to win basketball games and figure out how high we can get. So, back soreness, it doesn’t matter. I owe these guys. So, if I can go play and compete at a high level, which I felt like I was able to, there’s no excuses, and I love the game too much, but also for my teammates.”
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