Michael Malone calls Nuggets’ effort in blowout loss to Knicks

After his Denver Nuggets were “embarrassed” in a 145-118 blowout loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night, coach Michael Malone was adamant that this is a game he won’t “flush.”

“F— that man, no. No, we’re not flushing,” Malone said in response to a reporter’s question. “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 don’t flush anything.”

The Knicks led by 12 points after the first quarter, 23 points at halftime and by as many as 30 points on a night, the team shot a sizzling 60.9% from the floor. Their 45 assists matched the single-game team record set against Cleveland on November 24, 1979.

New York’s 145 points were the most by a visitor at the 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 scored in a regulation game in Denver since the Phoenix Suns won 153-118 on April 16, 1991.

The loss dropped the Nuggets to a surprising 5-4 at home this season. The team finished with the second best home mark last season at 33-8.

Jalen Brunson, who contributed 17 of New York’s 45 assists, had a run in the first quarter, scoring nine straight points for the Knicks. He 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 had 27 points for the Nuggets off the bench, and Nikola Jokic finished with 22 points along with a season-low seven rebounds.

Asked what he expects from his team’s leadership in such situations, Malone said he needs more from his starters in particular.

“Well, 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 guys that have been here in the 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 are we going to 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.”

Jokic didn’t disagree with his coach’s assessment, saying, “We didn’t show up tonight.”

“It’s always a good slap in the face just to wake up,” Jokic said. “Coach was right. We’re in the games and we’re always down 20 at a half. I don’t know (what happens). We don’t warm up, we don’t wake up, or we just do I don’t know what it is, but together we must 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 LA and we can just show up tonight.”

Murray also addressed Saturday night’s game against the Lakers during his postgame press conference and how that may have affected the team’s focus.

“It’s a long season. Guys have lives outside of basketball,” Murray said. “We just beat LA in LA We got some guys that live in LA so I stayed in LA I don’t think the focus was there from everybody and that’s what happens when you don’t have focus.”

The Nuggets play next Wednesday night at Utah.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.