Oof. 70-115. | Michael Malone Post Game Interview | Nuggets vs Timberwolves Game 6

Oof. 70-115. | Michael Malone Post Game Interview | Nuggets vs Timberwolves Game 6

Michael when when they made that 27-2 run in the first quarter it seemed like you guys were fueling their break a little bit with some of the turnovers but also just missing shots how how much did you feel like you guys weren’t executing your offense sort of to the standard that you need to and how much is just like okay we can make these shots in a game seven we can can kind of handle this it’s it’s just a little bit of a variance well yeah to your point we started off 92 they call a timeout they go on a 29 to5 run um and in that stretch the two things that stood out to me were one the turnovers to your point which I said pregame is you know you can’t do that in this building with that crowd give them life give them energy and so our offense the the lack of value in the ball was problematic um and then the other thing that was really problematic in that first half 11 offens rebounds for 15 points um I told the guys at halftime I said fellas if I would have told you before the game that they’d be shooting 42 from the field and 30 from the three-point line would you have taken it and they all said yeah I says well the reason we’re getting our ass kicked is because you’re not taking care of the ball you’re not rebounding we’re playing with no physicality and no toughness and they hit us first they hit us second they hit us third and uh so you give them credit they they did what they needed to do to to keep this series alive and to bring it back to Denver for a game seven um so disappointing loss anytime you get down by 50 in a playoff game you know that’s um you know never an enjoyable experience but you know we have to go home and get back to playing the way we did where we won three games in a row and I have no doubt that we’ll be ready to do that come Sunday Michael how’ you how’ you feel about your team’s offensive process once you guys did get down big in the first half felt like there were a lot of Threes going up were were you good with those looks for the most part or would you like to have been a little bit more aggressive toward the Rim Yeah I I don’t know I think at halftime we had 21 threes attempted and we only made like maybe four of them and it’s a fine line because obviously um as I predicted they would they double team Nia obviously after a 40-point Outburst they double team him so when they put two on the ball you’re going to generate some open looks from three you know but it’s a fine line Vinnie of okay yeah we’re generating good looks and I felt early on we didn’t make the good looks and that kind of discouraged us and kind of took away our defensive intensity we were we’ve been so much more aggressive the last three games and and decisive and assertive the last three games than we were today and I think not making shots kind of had a negative impact on just our overall disposition tonight which which can’t be the case when you are missing shots you got to dig even deeper and give greater effort um but you know that just wasn’t the case tonight so we’ll watch the film uh we’ll see what we can do better uh come Sunday and and try to you know win a win a game seven another game seven for us coach not to pile on about the missed shots but and you mentioned the rebounding when their open looks but there’s not as many rebounders or people near the glass I guess how much is it you know a chicken and an egg kind of deal there uh so give me the question again well I guess I’m saying they’re taking open looks but you had so many guys in the perimeter and almost nobody inside which then leads to easy rebounds and leads to them going the other way like so is it almost like a a false positive that those looks are that open with nobody underneath um well obviously uh going seven to 36 from three and shooting 30 from the field um is problematic in and of itself you know not making shots not making open shots um we never we never aside from the nine to two start well I guess to start the I left Nia in to start the second realizing that this game was about to get away from us so I’m going to leave him in the game and we cut it to 11 and then they went on another big run 13-0 which put it to 24 um and then late in that second I’m saying let’s cut it to 14 by the half you know just kind of stay within Striking Distance we get a stop we try to throw a run out a turnover they score again so now we’re down I don’t know 17 or 19 at the half um but yeah we we can be a lot more instead of just all standing on the perimeter we can be a lot more aggressive to the basket not just settle for threes and obviously uh to your point a 62 to 43 rebound margin that is a 19 rebound differential um and that to me um speaks volumes about the game and our approach coach um similar to you know for game five you guys made Anthony C bodies and you know it seems like Minnesota kind of did the same with Nia uh tonight how did you guys um you know respond to that and how much is this series coming down to you know not the role players but the others you know performing really well well it always helps when the when the others uh like people like to call our our guys no no no no I I didn’t take it as a I understand that I didn’t take it in any negative way um like like for examp McDaniels tonight is by far best game of the series he played great uh 21 points four rebounds two blocks um you know an’s going to give you what an’s going to give you and their bench scored 23 our bench scored two so um in game five we were effective getting the ball out of his hands tonight we weren’t um and you know they they knew it was coming and and they did a really good job of moving the ball and attacking behind it um and then with Nola obviously after the performance he put on they said hey we’re we’re going to double team him and we have to do a better job of spacing reacting and then the bottom line is that they’re going to put two on the ball we got to make them pay and we didn’t do that tonight so they can just stay with that over and over and over again and uh just like in game five we put two on Ant and they didn’t make us pay and it was effective tonight it wasn’t so um the good thing is we’ll go home again watch this film and um understand there are going to be things that we can do differently from a game plan standpoint but to me the much bigger issue is we have to do a lot better job of um being locked in and ready to play in a game seven and again you know those are the two greatest words in sports game seven so hopefully our guys in front of an amazing crowd will be ready to go and we have the the the the and tangibles the way we’ve had them for the last three games prior to tonight one I just wanted to follow up on that what is your experience in game sevens and what do you expect on Sunday just the unique nature of that that game well our our experience is pretty positive so I’ll leave it at that do your homework thanks coach thank you

The Denver Nuggets crumbled under pressure tonight and played their worst game in a long time. The Timberwolves win game 6 and force a difficult game 7.

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