Can Jamal Murray help Canada make the Olympics?

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For the second year in a row, a key Canadian sidekick has helped an all-time great win an NBA championship. Last June, versatile Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins played a critical role in Steph Curry's fourth title. This time, Denver Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray played the Robin to Nikola Jokic's Batman as he and the two-time MVP captured their first Larry O'Brien Trophy.

Jokic capped one of the most impressive playoff runs in history last night by scoring 28 points, with 16 rebounds and four assists to lead the Nuggets to a gritty 94-89 win over Miami that delivered Denver its first NBA title in a tidy five games. The near-seven-foot Serbian centre with the soul of a point guard was the obvious choice for Finals MVP after nearly averaging a triple-double for the entire playoffs — 30 points, 13.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists.

But even the best player in the world (a title that now unquestionably belongs to Jokic) needs help to win a championship, and that's where Murray comes in. It's no accident that Jokic's deepest previous playoff run coincided with Murray's breakthrough performance in 2020, when the 23-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., exploded for a pair of 50-point games and two others with at least 40 as Denver reached the final four in the Disney World bubble. After Murray blew out his knee the following April and missed the next two post-seasons, Jokic and the Nuggets won a total of one series. 

The knee injury kept Murray out for the entire 2021-22 season, and he spent much of his comeback campaign playing his way back into form. Though he averaged a