DALLAS — After Jamal Murray had his best offensive performance of the season, Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone defended his star guard, admitting he struggled to start the season.

"I think the observation on Jamal was a little intense," Malone said after Murray scored a season-high 45 points to lead the Nuggets to a 118-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night. "Everybody should be kind and give this kid a break. He's not perfect. If you look at it, I think his numbers overall as of late, he's been very good for us."

Murray started off strong on Tuesday night, scoring 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting in the first quarter. A typical Nuggets rotation gave Murray a break midway through the first quarter, but he was convinced that wasn't the case because he felt like he was at his best.

"Don't knock me out," Murray told Malone multiple times early in the game, both times after he hit a 3-pointer.

Malone happily agreed to the request and allowed Murray to play the entire quarter. Murray scored 32 points on 12-for-15 shooting in the first half, two points shy of his previous season high.

"You're in the zone, and it's fun," said Murray, who shot 18 of 26 from the field and 5 of 9 from 3-point range while outscoring Dallas' starting lineup 45-39. "Your team knows you're in the zone. They're trying to find you, too. The ball has energy and it found me today and I was just rolling, so I didn't pay too much attention to it. I was just playing the game as I wanted. and play freely.

"If I miss a shot or turn it over, it's on to the next play. And it's good to be able to play free, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes you get a lot of negatives in the game and it's just From one player to another, today it was the opposite."

As far as Malone is concerned, there are too many negative emotions about Murray this season. Murray signed a four-year maximum salary extension worth $208 million during the offseason.

The Nuggets signed Murray, one of the team's only stars to win an NBA championship in 2023, to a max salary, even though he struggled in last season's playoffs and in the summer with Team Canada at the Olympics. Good, but his performance was terrible. This season he averaged 19.8 points per game and shot 44.7% from the field, which was his lowest scoring average since the 2019-20 season and his lowest shooting percentage since the 2018-19 season.

"I think Jamal is getting a lot of attention this year," Malone said. "Jamal Murray didn't pay himself ($52 million per season). We did it as an organization because we believed in him.

"We're not going to win our first franchise championship if Jamal Murray is averaging 21, 10 and six. You know what I mean? So I understand everybody wants our guys to be perfect. Everybody wants us to go undefeated. It doesn't happen like it did for Jamal. Every player goes through ups and downs and the most important thing is to know that everyone in the locker room - the coaches, the players - are going to support him. We will fight alongside him."

Murray, who is averaging 17.8 points on 42 percent shooting during the Nuggets' 11-10 start, said he believes he deserves criticism "to some degree."

"It comes with responsibility," Murray said. "I'm totally ready. That's why I actually signed up... I admit I didn't play well, so if I say that, I'm not surprised to hear from other people it's the same "

But Malone insisted that Murray's fifth career 40-point game should be viewed as a continuation of a stellar performance rather than an outlier.

Malone pointed to Murray's performance during Denver's 13 wins in its last 18 games. Murray averaged 21.9 points per game during this period, shooting 47.3% from the field and 43.3% from three-point range.

"I've always supported him and I will always support him," Malone said. “It was so rewarding to see him have a great night tonight and see how excited his teammates were that he came out and scored 45 points in a very efficient way.

"It wasn't just a good game tonight. Jamal Murray has played really good basketball for us the last 18 games. It's not a small sample size and we have to get him moving in the right direction. "