'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
The highlight of Game 1 for Jamal Murray came when he dribbled into the middle, planted his surgically repaired left knee in the paint, made a full clockwise turn, then faded away and swished a mid-range jumper.
His most important contribution to Denver's first win in the franchise's first appearance in the NBA Finals -- well, take your pick.
Murray's 26-point, 10-assist night in the 104-93 win over Miami on Thursday almost seemed incidental for a team that features a player averaging a triple-double in these playoffs in Nikola Jokic, who has the skills to make every player on the roster a threat.
And yet, anybody following the Nuggets for a while knows it has been Murray's return to full health -- and his return to the playoffs for the first time in three seasons -- that has been a catalyst in the run they're on.
"He's a three-level scorer. He can shoot the 3. He can pull up and get to the rim," said Heat guard Haywood Highsmith, describing the challenge of slowing Murray. "He's a crafty player, has a good handle. He's in good condition."
All those points and assists aside, it's arguable Murray's most important contribution in this game came during a 106-second stretch after Miami had cut a 24-point deficit to 10. It's somewhat remarkable -- and oh-so typical of the seventh-year guard out of Kentucky -- that during those 106 seconds that changed the game, Murray didn't record a single stat.
It started at the 9:02 mark of the fourth quarter when he made a snap throw to Jokic, which loosened the Heat defense and allowed Jokic to find Jeff Green for an uncontested layup.
A few empty possessions later, Murray found a sliver of open space in the middle to hit Jokic, who missed the easy layup but got fouled and made both free throws.
The possession after that, Murray scooped up the ball after Bruce Brown picked Highsmith's pocket. Murray wove down court, dribbled around his back, through his legs, then flipped it to Michael Porter Jr. who, with the court now wide open, found Jokic for a layup.
Denver's lead was back to 16.
"Loved his pace tonight, just the pace that he played all night long," Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon said. "The tempo that he played at, controlling the game and controlling the flow of the game was great."
For the record, Murray's turnaround fadeaway over Highsmith -- the jumper of the night -- came with 3:27 left, raised the Denver lead to 14 after another mini-flurry from the Heat and put to rest any doubt about the outcome.
It also served as yet another reminder that if they Heat are going to have any chance of containing the Nuggets over the rest of this series, they'll have to account for the player who has never made an All-Star game and never received an MVP vote but is every bit as key to Denver's success as the player who has, Jokic.
"He's a dynamic scorer. He poses threats in different ways and he's relentless," said Miami guard Gabe Vincent. "It will be a tall task, and we'll continue to work at it."
Murray went down in a game at Golden State and tore up his knee late in the 2020-21 season, an injury that forced him to miss the `21 playoffs and all of last year. Even with Jokic winning the MVP in both of those seasons, the Nuggets got swept out of the '21 conference semifinals by the Suns and demolished by the Warriors in the first round in '22.
By then, the phrase "Bubble Murray" -- an homage to his breakthrough during the 2020 playoffs in the COVID bubble in Orlando -- was becoming popular. He has grown tired of that label, and of the question of whether "Bubble Murray" would ever show up again once he returned to full health.
Answer: Yes.
He has averaged 27.6 points and 6.2 assists over 16 playoff games this year, surpassing his regular-season numbers by 7.6 and 1.4. Counting 2019 and 2020, Murray increases his scoring by 33% and his assists by 13% in the postseason. He is, in short, building a reputation as one of those special players who come up biggest when the lights are brightest.
True to form, Murray was more than happy to spread the credit around after the Nuggets made it 1-0 as a franchise in the NBA Finals.
"It's hard to guard everybody, instead of just one or two guys," Murray said. "I think tonight was just a great example of how it could be anybody's night and anybody's quarter, maybe not your quarter. That's just Nuggets basketball."
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs will start in net for the Canucks as Vancouver kicks off a second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night.
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
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Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.