Nuggets Jamal Murray Says George Floyd, Breonna Taylor Are Fueling His Historic Playoff Scoring Outburst

(CBS4) - During the opening round of the NBA playoffs this year Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets has reached heights that only two others have ever reached in the postseason, and those players are both legends: Jerry West and Michael Jordan. Murray scored more than 40 points in each of the past three games (50, 42, 50), which only West did in consecutive playoff games in 1965, followed by MJ in 1988.

What is fueling Denver's rising star? CBSSports.com put it this way after Sunday's dramatic Game 6 win over the Utah Jazz: After the final buzzer, he delivered yet another memorable and moving moment during his postgame interview. Struggling to find the words to explain his play, he pointed to his shoes, which featured the faces of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, two victims of police violence, explaining "These shoes give me life. Even though these people are gone, they give me life, help me find strength to keep fighting this world."

Sunday's Game 6 was supposed to have taken place two days earlier, but the NBA paused its entire postseason as players made an impromptu strike after a police shooting of Black man, Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.