Michael Malone visibly upset in postgame news conference | NBA on ESPN

Michael Malone visibly upset in postgame news conference | NBA on ESPN

what changed defensively for you guys after you went up 20 in the second half uh our offense did you feel like there was anything that you guys got away from offensively in that stretch after you reached that point I’ll have to go back and watch the film what how hard is it just to absorb a loss like this after after going ahead by 20 next question man the season’s over that’s what’s hard being up 20 season’s over you don’t understand that the season’s over it’s hard stupid ass questions Nicole and Jamal coach uh carried a lot of the burden offensively for you guys uh what did you like what what sort of broke down between them within the second half just within those actions well I think so much was being placed on their shoulders I mean it was uh we’re expecting Nia and Jamal to can to continue to pull rabbits out of their hat man and somebody else got to give some help I mean you know Joker 34 Jamal 35 and uh you know we just struggle to make shots you know they’re really good defense uh I thought our guys played extremely hard tonight to hold that team to 98 points 39 from the field 29 from three um but as I said all series long um are we going to be able to score enough from this series and once again in the four losses we couldn’t score I think now after the four losses we probably averaged around 85 points a game and 115 in the three wins um so we had a going Jamal had a going in the first half we scored and uh obviously at halftime you know they picked up their aggression ran off our misses they became aggressive and then the second half they totally dominated the glass we dominated in the first half and the second half they rebounded US 29 to 15 coach were you were you satisfied with the the quality of the offense in terms of the the process of getting shots or you know was it you know one of those things where you thought you thought that Miss shots kind of affected what you guys did on that end and on the other end as well uh no I mean I I don’t think that Miss shots affected anything except the scoreboard and again they they shot 39 from the field Anthony Edwards was six of 24 so the Miss shots didn’t affect anything other than us not scoring but to give up 98 points in a game seven on those percentages I’ll take that all day long um was our offense where it needed to be in that second half I think U it could definitely have been better we could have gotten probably better looks um you know but again for 82 games they’re the number one defense for a reason and uh we just weren’t able to make enough shots and create enough good shots and that’s second half coach after a great first series with uh Michael Porter Jr shooting the ball what do you think happened in this series to his game offensively they guarded him yeah they guarded him really well and obviously against the Lakers he was able to get off you know I don’t know what the percentages are but now four losses you know I know Michael didn’t shoot the ball well and he wasn’t the only one but you know he was three of 12 tonight one of six from three last two games they doubled ni Cola I felt a lot of those were were good looks just didn’t go down and I know you know sometimes you you it’s an oversimplification of the NBA being a make or Miss league but um we just did not make enough shots in this series Michael included but it wasn’t the only one we as a team did not make enough shots and I didn’t help generate enough good looks maybe to uh to help ourselves but um every series is a learning opportunity and this feeling sucks as I told our players uh you go go from training camp all the way through and then it comes to an abrupt Halt and that hurts so use that feeling as motivation and come back a better player we won it last year teams in the west they they regrouped they retooled how are we going to beat the Champs and teams got better and um you got to tip your cap to to Minnesota obviously Chris Finch um their team Anthony Edwards all their players um that was a hell of a series and they gave us all we could handle and uh you know they wind up winning game seven on our court which is a tough one to swallow but uh we’ll be back we just got to find ways to look inside look outside and find ways to continue to get better Coach to to fight for in top three seed and then to ultimately lose three home games in this series how you know you mentioned them winning on your home court here in the hollerin in the in the locker room how how tough is that to swallow that you guys did lose the three home games well of course you know um we have one of the best home records in the n NBA this year and to lose one and two and then to lose seven is uh I don’t think anyone could have predicted that happening I think most people had the series going seven but not the way it went seven that’s kind of a strange Series in that regard um but yeah that’s um to let them come in here three times and beat us in our home court that’s something that we’re not accustomed to and uh if you’re going to try to win a championship if you’re going to try to get to Western Conference Finals obviously you got to protect your home court Michael you touched on it briefly I think in the previous answer but the the devastation you saw from your players walking off the floor down the hallway what kind of a message do you try to give to them um I mean obviously tough tough words and you can see from from their faces that everything they gave and and now it’s over yeah it’s uh it’s hard uh and I think you know as I’ve gone through my NBA career as a head coach you know I used to meet with players right after season ended and talk I don’t do that anymore it’s it’s too emotional you know the the sting of it is still too raw so I I think it’s good for everybody to get away for me to get away and kind of reflect on the season in totality because right now all I’m thinking of is that we are done and uh that that that for me hurts uh for our players it hurts get back to work you know I mean we all have to dig deep look inside come come back better indiv ually and then as a team as a group we’ll get with Calvin we’ll get with Josh and uh you’re always looking at ways to get better and uh that’s what we’re going to do coach I think Kevin Harlem said on the TV broadcast said this is the sixth straight year the defending champ hasn’t gotten past the second round what do you think that says about just how tough it is to advance as the defending champ well we knew it were hard you know something I talked to our team about in training camp you know I think the last team to do it was the 17 18 Warriors and uh with the rules what they are now I think it’s going to become even harder and harder to repeat as Champions um but the one thing I keep on going back to right now is that I consider the San Antonio Spurs a dynasty and they never won back to back um so losing the hurt of it the pain of it it it helped us win our first championship can we use this year you know we tied a franchise record 57 wins uh we went 21 and6 out of the All-Star break we really stepped up um beat the Lakers in the first round and lost to a very talented Timberwolves team who held the number one seed most of the year until the very end um so it is hard it is hard it is hard to repeat it’s hard to win and uh we all got to do whatever it takes to not have this feeling again next year but I’m very proud of the entire Team all 18 players everything they sacrificed since Labor Day and very proud and thankful for the coaching staff that I have uh the ownership group that we have and uh you know this is just a momentary delay you know it’s a failure is not fatal we’ll be back coach uh winning the championship you have to have a certain level of hunger I can imagine defending a championship is exhausting how exhausting has the totality of this season B yeah I I think it’s a really important point and I’ve never and those that know I’m I’m not an excuse maker um the better team won so I’m taking nothing away from Minnesota um but when you look at the fact that all the teams that are still playing we played into June last year a lot of basketball and then uh we had to play our guys our main guys unlike last season through game 82 to secure the number two seed whereas last year we we were able to rest down the stretch and I I think the the run last season and coming back and you know the the amount of minutes that our our starters had to play I think mentally emotionally physically I think guys are gassed they’re dead tired they gave me everything I could ever ask for and that’s why as as much as this hurts I will walk out of this building tonight with my head held very high because we competed we fought we gave ourselves a chance and we came up short and that’s going to happen at times no one ever said this was going to be easy trying to repeat and um like I said you know we just got to improve across the board get better and uh and come back even stronger thanks everybody appreciate

Michael Malone doesn’t hide his emotions after the Denver Nuggets’ Game 7 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Semifinals.

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