Michael Malone calls out Nuggets’ effort in blowout loss to Knicks

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

“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’m not flushing anything.”

The Knicks led by 12 points after the first quarter, 23 at halftime and by many as 30 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 Nov. 24, 1979.

New York’s 145 points marked the most scored by a visitor to Ball Arena since the Los Angeles Lakers scored 146 in an overtime win 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 tied for 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 when he scored nine straight points for the Knicks. He outscored the Nuggets by a 9-2 margin to break 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.

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 replied. “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 want 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 punch in the face just to wake up,” Jokic said. “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.”

Malone said the Knicks played like a team coming off a bad loss in  Utah, whereas the Nuggets “played like we won a game in L.A. and we can just show up tonight.”

Murray also brought up Saturday night’s game against the Lakers during his postgame news 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 L.A. in L.A. We’ve got some guys who live in L.A., so stayed in L.A. I don’t think the focus was there from everybody, and that’s what happens when you don’t have the focus.”

The Nuggets next play Wednesday night in Utah.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.