Jamal Murray is having the finest scoring season of his career, and Wednesday night was the latest reminder. The Denver Nuggets guard put together one of the most explosive individual performances of the NBA season against the Dallas Mavericks, reigniting conversations about just how high his ceiling is.
Where does this performance rank among the best of his career?
Jamal Murray’s Highest-Scoring NBA Games
Murray’s career-high is 55 points, set against the Portland Trail Blazers on Feb. 12, 2025. In that game, he went 20-of-36 from the field and hit 7 3-pointers in a 132-121 Nuggets victory.
That performance stands as the third-highest single-game scoring total in Nuggets history, trailing only David Thompson’s 73-point game on April 9, 1978, and Nikola Jokic’s 56-point effort in December 2024.
Wednesday’s 53-point eruption against the Mavericks now sits alongside it as one of the defining individual scoring nights of Murray’s career. This is his second 50-point game of the season and his season high, painting a picture of a player who has grown into one of the most dangerous scorers in the league.
Jamal Murray Drops Season-High 53 Points Against the Mavericks
Murray was on a different level from the opening tip on Wednesday.
He scored 33 of his 53 points in the first half alone, going 11-of-16 from the field and rattling off 14 consecutive points in one stretch that left the Mavericks scrambling for answers. He finished 19-of-28 from the floor and hit 9 3-pointers on 14 attempts, carrying the Nuggets to a 142-135 victory that pushed their record to 46-28.
53 POINTS FOR JAMAL MURRAY! https://t.co/mzKKnX7n1o pic.twitter.com/R1fGiz0cpn
— NBA (@NBA) March 26, 2026
His teammate, Jokic, was his usual brilliant self alongside him, posting 23 points, 21 rebounds, and a season-high 19 assists, including his 6,000th career assist. It was yet another feather in his cap and a historic milestone that made him the first center in NBA history to reach that mark.
Jokic was directly responsible for creating 21 of Murray’s 53 points, with 3 of Murray’s 4 assists on the night going back to Jokic. It only goes to show how seamless their chemistry is. No wonder it was so difficult for the Mavericks to contain the duo.
The Mavericks threatened late, trimming an 11-point lead to a single possession in the fourth quarter, but Murray’s 17-point fourth quarter put the game to rest. The Nuggets improved to 11-0 in Murray’s regular-season career when he scores 40 or more, including 5-0 this season.
On the season, he is averaging a career-high 25 points per game while shooting 47.8% from the field. The Nuggets are firmly in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race heading into the postseason.
