The Denver Nuggets may be in the top half of the Western Conference standings, but you wouldn’t know it based on their performance Friday night—or by listening to head coach Michael Malone afterward.
Following a humiliating 128-109 loss to the shorthanded Portland Trail Blazers, Malone didn’t mince words. He torched his team in a postgame rant that felt less like a press conference and more like a wake-up call for a squad that’s starting to crumble at the worst possible time.
“Yeah, that was embarrassing. That was just a joke. Who are we kidding? Eleven games to go, and that’s the effort we put forth? I’m embarrassed by that game—by our approach and how we played.”
“Twenty-six points on the offensive glass. Rebounding is effort, rebounding is toughness, rebounding is desire, and they just kicked our butts on the offensive glass. And then we give up 25 points off our turnovers. So, 51 points. 51 points off of rebounds and turnovers. We had 18 blow-bys.”
“All they ran tonight was pick-and-roll: let me get the matchup that I want, I’m going to go one-on-one. And they beat us every time. And the few times they did miss, they got every offensive rebound. So I don’t know what our guys are thinking with 11 to go. And I challenged them to look at the standings, look at our remaining schedule.”
“If we continue to play the way we’re playing, we will be in the play-in tournament. Very simple. That’s just the way it is. And I think each guy’s got to look themselves in the mirror and start coming to each respective game with the proper mindset—and have some pride.”
“I didn’t think we played with any pride tonight. I don’t really care. It’s not my job to evaluate how they take things. My job is to be honest—sometimes brutally honest. And tonight was a brutally honest message.”
“And the guys that are full of s**t won’t hear it. You know, they’ll say, ‘Coach is tripping.’ And the guys that maybe do really care—they’re not going to go back and watch their minutes because nobody watches their minutes. Nobody watches film. So we’ll have to show them the film.”
“And I said, ‘If somebody disagrees with me, please speak up.’ And not nobody said a word. So again, I’m not really concerned with how they took that message. My thing is being honest with how we just played.”
“We just got blown out in LA, come here against a team that is down three, four, five starters, and you mess around with the game—that’s what happens. That’s exactly what happened tonight.”
“And the same thing that’s been bothering us as of late, that I talked about pregame—the turnovers, the rebounding—was even worse tonight. And I didn’t think it could get any worse, but it did.”
The Nuggets were outworked across the board, allowing 26 second-chance points and coughing up 25 points off turnovers. They had 18 blow-bys on defense, a sign of poor perimeter effort and communication.
What stung the most wasn’t just that Denver lost to a team down five starters—it was how they let the game slip away. After leading 59-54 at halftime, Denver collapsed in the second half, getting outscored 74-50. A 14-0 run by Portland in the third quarter flipped the game, and the Nuggets never recovered.
All of this came without Nikola Jokic, who missed his third straight game due to an ankle injury. In his absence, Aaron Gordon tried to carry the load with 23 points, but the rest of the squad looked disjointed and uninspired. The Nuggets turned the ball over 20 times, were outscored 26-10 in second-chance opportunities, and got pulled off the floor with four minutes left as Portland cruised to victory.
With three straight losses and Jokic still sidelined, the Nuggets’ season is spiraling. They’re in a tight race for a top-four seed, currently sitting at 44-27, just a game above the Grizzlies in 5th seed and 2.5 games ahead of the surging Warriors in 6th place.
The difference between hosting a playoff series and fighting through the play-in could be decided over the next couple of weeks—and Denver’s current level of play suggests they’re headed in the wrong direction.
If there’s any silver lining, it’s that Malone has made it clear: this team cannot coast into the playoffs. Without a serious shift in effort and execution—especially on the defensive end—Denver could see its title hopes fade before the postseason even begins.
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