After his Denver Nuggets “embarrassed themselves” in a 145-118 loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night, coach Michael Malone remained adamant that this is a game he won’t “blush” in.
“Fuck that man, no. No, we’re not blushing,” Malone said in response to a reporter’s question. “You don’t blush when you’re embarrassed, you don’t blush when you give up 145 points, you don’t blush when you didn’t play hard, you didn’t play with effort, you didn’t play with effort, physical, I don’t blush.” anything.”
The Knicks led by 12 points after the first quarter, 23 at halftime and by as many as 30 on a night in which the team shot a blazing 60.9% from the floor. His 45 assists tied the team’s single-game record set against Cleveland on November 24, 1979.
New York’s 145 points marked the most scored by a visitor at Ball Arena since the Los Angeles Lakers scored 146 in an overtime victory on April 10, 2022. It was the most points a visiting team had ever scored. in a regulation game in Denver from Phoenix. The Suns won 153-118 on April 16, 1991.
The loss dropped the Nuggets to a surprising 5-4 at home this season. The team tied for the second-best local record last season at 33-8.
Jalen Brunson, who contributed 17 of New York’s 45 assists, went on a run in the first quarter when he scored nine straight points for the Knicks. They outscored the Nuggets by a 9-2 margin to open the game.
Brunson finished with 23 points, while OG Anunoby scored a career-high 40 points for New York. Russell Westbrook scored 27 points for the Nuggets off the bench, and Nikola Jokic finished with 22 points along with a season-low seven rebounds.
Malone was asked what he expects from his team’s leadership in such situations and said he needs more from his starters in particular.
“Well, yeah, I mean, like Russell Westbrook, he’s vocal, but we need more than Russell Westbrook,” Malone responded. “I need Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, I need the guys that have been here in that starting lineup to speak up. And you know, tonight we embarrassed ourselves.
“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 we want to be as a team.” So, yeah, leadership would be great, toughness would be great, physicality would be great, playing like you really care would be great, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Jokic didn’t disagree with his coach’s assessment, saying, “We didn’t show up tonight.”
“It’s always a good punch in the face just to wake up,” Jokic said. “The coach was right. We are in the games and we are always losing 20 in the middle. I don’t know. [what’s going on]. We didn’t warm up, we didn’t wake up or we just didn’t play enough. “I don’t know what it is, but collectively we need to do a better job.”
Malone said the Knicks played like a team coming off a bad loss in Utah, while the Nuggets “played like we won a game in Los Angeles and we can just show up tonight.”
Murray also mentioned Saturday night’s game against the Lakers during his postgame press conference and how it might have affected the team’s focus.
“It’s a long season. Guys have lives outside of basketball,” Murray said. “We just beat Los Angeles in Los Angeles. We have some guys that live in Los Angeles, so we stayed in Los Angeles. I don’t think everyone was focused on that, and that’s what happens when you don’t have the focus.”
The Nuggets will play next Wednesday night at Utah.
