Malone rips Nuggets apart after embarrassing loss, calls out Jokic, Murray

Following one of their best showings of the season in Los Angeles on Saturday night, the Nuggets got destroyed at home by the Knicks on Monday night, 145-118. They’ve now dropped four of their last six games, and have fallen to 9-7 on the season.

This was a discouraging loss all around as the Nuggets showed no ability to stop the Knicks' offense, whatsoever. New York shot 61% from the field and 53% on threes, they had 45 assists, 62 points in the paint, 17 second-chance points, 24 fast break points, and 20 points off turnovers.

The Nuggets allowed OG Anunoby to score 40 points and Karl-Anthony Towns to score 30 while their own leading scorer was Russell Westbrook, who scored 24 of his 27 points in the 4th quarter, long after the game was decided.

It was a pathetic and disappointing showing for the team in a game they should have been able to get up for at home against a marquee opponent. Michael Malone wasn’t a fan of what he saw at all and for at least the second time already in this young season, he chose to air out his issues with his players publicly.

Malone goes on expletive-laden tirade following defeat

In his postgame press conference, Malone did not hold back. He went on for several minutes, calling out his team’s lack of effort, lack of physicality, lack of toughness, and lack of leadership. He called out Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray by name to be better leaders. He said that his team got embarrassed and that they played like they didn’t care.

Malone was clearly irate after this loss and wanted that to be known. It may seem like an overreaction, but this isn’t just one game. He’s rightfully concerned about this becoming a habit and the Nuggets simply don’t have enough talent not to show up for every game this season in a loaded Western Conference.

This isn’t a new tactic for Malone; he has called out the team and various players before. But it does show that he is upset and frustrated and he’s getting more desperate for ways to get through to his players and stress the urgency of the situation.

Hopefully, the message was received and we will see a much better version of the Nuggets when they next take the floor on Wednesday night in Utah.