Jamal Murray (non-COVID illness) will play in Game 1

Shortly before Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, the Denver Nuggets announced that starting point guard Jamal Murray would be available to play vs. the Los Angeles Lakers after initially being listed as questionable with a non-COVID illness.

Various reporters tweeted the news less than an hour before tip-off:

Murray — who was also initially listed as questionable for Game 6 vs. the Phoenix Suns last round with the same designation before ultimately playing — always seemed logically unlikely to miss a game of this magnitude after a few more days of rest, despite his status nominally being in question on the injury report.

Harrison Wind of local outlet DNVR tweeted as much shortly after Murray’s designation was announced on Monday night:

Murray is averaging 25.9 points per game in the playoffs for the Nuggets on 46.1% shooting, while also knocking down 39.5% of threes and dishing 6.5 assists per game. He is the Nuggets’ second-most-important player behind two-time MVP Nikola Jokic.

With Murray available, the Nuggets won’t have to rely on their suspect point guard depth, as his absence may have required them to dust off veteran point guards Reggie Jackson or Ish Smith and throw them into the playoff rotation unexpectedly.

The Lakers and Nuggets will tip off at 5:30 p.m. PT. Get ready for the matchup with our own Cooper Halpern’s series preview, or Nicole Ganglani’s look at Game 1 specifically.

This developing news story will be updated with more information as it continues. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.