Michael Malone: ​​’F–k That’, Nuggets ‘Embarrassed’ in Knicks Loss; ‘Didn’t play hard’ | News, results, highlights, stats and rumours

Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone voiced his frustrations following the Nuggets’ 145-118 home loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night.

When asked by a journalist if he intended to “rinse” the loss and move on quickly due to its one-sided nature, he made it clear that the poor performance was something he would instead dwell on.

“F–k that man, no,” Malone said. “No, we don’t flush. You don’t flush when you get embarrassed, you don’t flush when you gave 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 raced out to a 12-point lead in the first quarter and it ballooned to 23 at halftime, a deficit Denver never came close to overcoming.

New York dominated in virtually every facet, shooting a remarkable 60.9 percent from the field and 52.8 percent from three-point range, while also making 14 of its 16 free throw attempts.

The Knicks also won the rebounding game 43-33, had 45 assists to Denver’s 23 and had nine turnovers to Denver’s 11.

Malone gave veteran guard Russell Westbrook some credit for his play, but he also called out the team’s two best and longest-tenured players in Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray:

“Well, yeah, I mean like Russell Westbrook, he’s vocal — but we need more than Russell Westbrook. I need Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, I need guys that have been here in the starting lineup to be vocals. And you know we got embarrassed tonight.

“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, yes, leadership would be great, toughness would be great, physicality would be great, playing like you’re actually going to be great and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Both Jokić and Murray played pivotal roles in the Nuggets winning the NBA championship two seasons ago, and Jokić is a three-time NBA MVP, but Malone did not absolve them of the blame.

While Westbrook led the team Monday with 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, Jokić finished with 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting and Murray had 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting.

With the loss, Denver dropped to a disappointing 9-7 on the season, moving it into a tie for seventh in the Western Conference with the Phoenix Suns.

After a five-game winning streak, the Nuggets have now lost four of their last six games. The end of the winning streak coincided with Jokić missing three games due to personal reasons, but he has been back in the last three games, two of which have been losses.

The Knicks, now 10-7, turned in perhaps their best showing of the season and have now won five of their last six games, making them one of the hottest teams in the NBA.

Denver will have another chance to get back on track ahead of a three-game Thanksgiving break as it will hit the road to face the 4-12 Utah Jazz on Wednesday.