Murray swishes a half-court heave at the halftime buzzer for the Nuggets in Game 3 vs. Timberwolves

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Denver’s Jamal Murray scooped up Minnesota’s errant inbounds pass near the sideline, rebalanced his body after carefully keeping his feet in and launched a 55-foot shot at the end of the first half.

Murray crouched down for some extra coaxing of his heave from behind the half-court line, watched the ball sail on track toward the basket and — swish! — struck a pose right in front of the broadcast table.

As TNT announcer Kevin Harlan exuberantly called the improbable make, the Nuggets raced over to swarm their teammate and celebrate the 15-point lead they took at halftime on Sunday night in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series on the Timberwolves.

That was quite the dagger Murray delivered for the defending champions.

The Nuggets scored eight points over the last 20 seconds of the second quarter to fend off a resurgence by the home team after the deficit had been whittled to seven points on a 3-pointer by Anthony Edwards.

After Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a 3-pointer, Edwards lost control of the ball on his drive into the lane. Michael Porter Jr. answered with a fast-break dunk off the outlet pass by Nikola Jokic. Then after Nickeil Alexander-Walker desperately inbounded the ball for the Timberwolves toward Jaden McDaniels, Murray swooped in for the finishing touch on a stellar first half for the Nuggets.

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