Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns start West semifinals with ugly Game 1 to No. 1 seed Denver in NBA Playoffs

DENVER — Denver looked like a No. 1 seed in Saturday night’s Game 1 and Phoenix looked like it wasn’t ready to play one.

The Nuggets led by as many as 25 points in the second half of their commanding 125-107 victory before a raucous sellout crowd of 19,762 at Ball Arena.

"We've got to be better," Suns guard Chris Paul said. "We've got to be better."

Game 2 is Monday in Denver before shifting to Phoenix for Friday's Game 3.

"We're going to be a completely different team," Suns big Deandre Ayton said. "This is playoff basketball. This is where you have to adjust and really see what your team is made of in a series."

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Jamal Murray cooked the Suns with a game-high 34 points, going 6-of-10 on 3s to greatly fuel Denver’s 16-of-37 eruption from deep.

"He is a bad man," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. " I mean Jamal Murray is… I'll tell you what, the last two years, it's been tough not having him. A few years ago, we got swept by these guys in the second round and last year, we lost to the world champions in the first round."

Murray didn't play in the 2021 conference semifinals Phoenix swept Denver due to a knee injury that sidelined him the entire 2021-22 season.

"When Jamal Murray is fully healthy, locked, and loaded, we know what he is capable of and it is just so fun to watch him perform at the level he's performing at,” Malone added.

Murray scored 20 of his 34 in the second half, connecting on 4-of-6 from 3 after the break. He hit back-to-back 3s to give the Nuggets a 112-95 lead with 6:56 remaining in the game.

"It's Nuggets’ basketball, it is what we do, nothing special," Murray said. "We are just playing basketball, playing the game, and making reads."

Two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic posted a monster double-double of 24 points and 19 rebounds. The Nuggets were the more physical and aggressive team in dismantling the Suns.

"I thought that they were just more physical, played with more force, especially in the second quarter, that’s when we kind of lost some momentum," said Suns coach Monty Williams as Phoenix trailed by 17 points at the half after getting outscored 37-19 in the second quarter. "The difference is in possessions, turnovers, and offensive rebounds. They just destroyed us tonight."

For the game, Denver attempted 101 shots to Phoenix's 84 and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds with Jokic hauling in eight.

"There’s a lot of things that we could have controlled but didn’t control tonight," Suns wing Josh Okogie, who got the start instead of Torrey Craig, who started the entire Clippers series Phoenix won in five. "I feel like we didn’t rebound the ball defensively well. We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, we gave up a lot of transition points, we turned the ball over quite a bit. I think if we can share those things, we’ll be alright.”

Kevin Durant paced the fourth-seeded Suns with 29 points and 14 rebounds to go with seven of Phoenix’s 16 turnovers.

"No, it was on me," said Durant when asked how much of it was Denver's defense the result of his seven turnovers. "I just slipped a couple times, threw a couple bad passes. I only had one assist and seven turnovers. You're not going to win basketball games like that. I have to be way more careful with the ball. I either have to look to shoot the ball, or make the correct pass. They got 17 more shots up. I had half of our turnovers, so I put that on me. I just have to keep the ball in my hands and not try to make the home run play."

The Nuggets scored 18 points off Phoenix's 16 turnovers.

"The physicality and willingness to pursue from behind made them uncomfortable," Malone said.

Devin Booker went for 27 points, Ayton posted 14 points and seven rebounds after registering four straight double-doubles in Phoenix's previous series win over the Clippers and Paul added 11 points and five assists.

"I always believe in us," Booker said. "We've been a good team all year of digesting the game and seeing what went on and learning from it and making those corrections."

Phoenix lost Game 1 to the Clippers at home before winning four straight games to advance, but the Clippers were without Paul George all series with a knee injury and lost Kawhi Leonard after Game 2 with a knee injury.

The Nuggets are full strength for this series and with a rabid home crowd roaring them on, they will be a tough out Monday night.

"On the road, you want to try and get you one in the first two games," Durant said. "We'll look at film tomorrow and see what we can do better and see how we can give ourselves a better chance to win."

Williams took his starters out with 5:09 remaining and Phoenix down, 118-95.

"We understand what it takes to emotionally settle down, understand it's a big game coming up and our guys have played in a number of big games."

Phoenix trailed, 68-51, at the half as Denver shot 9-of-17 from 3 compared to the Suns going only 2-of-5. Phoenix finished the game 7-of-23 on 3s.

"They were comfortable and we weren't in their way," Ayton said. "That's not Suns basketball."

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns start West semifinals with ugly Game 1 loss