Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone ripped into his team after their blowout loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night, accusing them of a lack of effort.
The Knicks cruised to a 145-118 win as the Nuggets conceded the most points in regulation in a home game in 33 years.
Final #MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/ppyDODWSCN
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2024
Malone was still furious with his side’s performance when he spoke to the media afterwards.
Asked if he was willing to “flush” this game away, he replied: F*** that man, no. No, we’re not flushing.
“You don’t flush when you get embarrassed, you don’t flush when you gave up 145 points, you don’t flush when you didn’t play hard, didn’t play with effort, physicality, I’m not flushing anything.”
OG Anunoby poured in 40 points for the Knicks while Jalen Brunson contributed 17 assists on a chastening night for Denver.
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‘We got embarrassed’
Malone spared Russell Westbrook, who scored 27 points off the bench, from criticism but the rest were called out.
“Russell Westbrook, he’s vocal – but we need more than Russell Westbrook,” he added. “I need Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, I need guys that have been here in that starting lineup to be vocal. And you know tonight we got embarrassed.
“We’re 16 games in and we’re talking about effort, we’re talking about toughness, we’re talking about physicality. And regardless of who’s in, who’s out, who do we wanna be as a team? So yeah leadership would be great, toughness would be great, physicality would be great, playing like you actually care would be great, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
A good punch in the face, admits Jokic
There was little pushback to Malone’s criticism with Jokic admitting the Nuggets had not been good enough on the night.
The Serbian said: “We didn’t show up tonight. It’s always a good punch in the face just to wake up.
“Coach was right. We are in the games, and we are always down 20 at a half. I don’t know [what’s going on]. We don’t warm up, we don’t wake up, or we just don’t play hard enough. I don’t know what it is, but collectively, we need to do a better job.”
