Spurs: Dejounte Murray's Monster Game Puts Him in Rare Air with Jokic

It's starting to look like sitting out due to health and safety protocols only fueled Dejounte Murray's fire. Since returning, the star San Antonio Spurs guard is averaging 21.4 points, 9.8 assists, and 7.4 rebounds per game on 45.9% shooting.

On Wednesday, Murray proved why he's one of the most underrated players in the game when he put up a career-high 32 points in a triple-double that included 11 assists and 10 rebounds. Despite the loss, the effort was otherworldly and almost brought the Spurs back from the dead late in the fourth quarter.

As the NBA History Twitter account shared, it was the first time a Spur had a 30+ point triple-double since David Robinson in 1994.

Murray's turnover-free performance puts him in elite company

Perhaps the most impressive part of Murray's feat on Wednesday was that he did all his damage without committing a single turnover. In doing so, he scored the second-most points in a turnover-free triple-double. In October 2018, Nikola Jokic had 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists without a turnover against the Phoenix Suns.

The triple-double was Dejounte's seventh of the season, a franchise record, and put him just three away from tying David Robinson (14) for the most ever by a Spur.

While Murray would much rather be winning than tallying triple-doubles in frustrating losses, his rapid growth this season is an excellent development. Accomplishments like this can lead to more recognition from peers, accolades from the league, and eventually attention from future potential Spurs that might want to team up with the dynamic young point guard.

It might not be happening as quickly as Spurs fans want, but the team is growing and evolving from years' past, and Dejounte Murray is leading the charge. If they can get a long stretch of being healthy, we might just start to see these efforts paying off in the win column before too long.