Fair or not, performances like Friday’s produce the kind of conversations around Jamal Murray that can quickly become a distraction.

Without Nikola Jokic in New Orleans, the Pelicans put a lot of pressure Murray in hopes of forcing someone else to beat them. The strategy paid off for a New Orleans squad that was even more shorthanded than the Jokic-less Nuggets.

“I feel like we executed pretty damn good,” Murray said after the Nuggets opened their NBA Cup run with a loss. “It was just we didn’t make shots which we normally make.”

That also applied to Murray, who needed 16 shots to score 16 points with nine of those points coming as the Nuggets’ attempted a fourth-quarter comeback. He went 2 for 8 from 3-point range and didn’t have his typically efficient mid-range game.

It wasn’t as if Murray was being hounded by the Pelicans’ top perimeter defenders. New Orleans was without Dejounte Murray, Herb Jones and Jose Alvarado. To his credit, he dished out eight assists without a turnover, grabbed six rebounds and recorded a couple of steals, but the main reason Denver’s front office offered Murray a max contract extension is his often-elite ability to get buckets next to Jokic.

Defensively, Murray got outscored by his counterpart. Despite being on a two-way contract, Brandon Boston Jr. scored 19 points on 13 shots for the Pelicans while primarily being guarded by Murray.

The Nuggets paid a similar amount of attention to Brandon Ingram, the Pelicans’ best available player. A fair share of his 26 shots were tough ones, but he was willing to take them and finished with a game-high 29 points.

Through eight games, Murray’s averaging 17.9 points, the lowest number since his second NBA season in 2017-18. That averaged is dragged down by the six points Murray scored in 22 minutes against Minnesota before sustaining a concussion. More concerning are the percentages. He’s shooting 39.8% from the field and 31.9% from 3 to start the season. Those marks would be the lowest of his career.

Jokic remains questionable for Sunday’s game in Memphis. Getting the best player in the world back would be an obvious boost, but the Nuggets’ ability to win a second championship depends on Murray being better than he was Friday and for most of the early portion of the season.

“We’ll be better next time,” Murray said.

“We have a great team here. We should’ve won that game.”