Coach Malone Post Game Press Conference After Win vs Hornets 🎙

Coach Malone Post Game Press Conference After Win vs Hornets 🎙

The cumulative third quarter score between you guys and the Hornets the season ends up at 70 to 26 uh did you have to sort of give them a kick in the rear again at halftime in this one or what was the message no a completely different halftime you know and

Charlotte that was the case but tonight um you just stay the course you know um you can’t you can’t pull that card every night I mean so it was just sayy we have to take care of the ball we had seven turnovers for 10 points in the first

Half um we played really good defense the first quarter second quarter we didn’t play any defense so just challenging our guys to do what we do and what our expectations are and obviously to your point I think we started at that third quarter on a 30

To6 run guys were uh locked in and our defense was leading to offense we took care of it in the second half and um you know that’s that’s stand another good basketball we’ talked about switches being flipped before is this just one of those instances where you realize that

The team has has done this before for where but they have kind of kicked into gear and then you kind of lean back at the first half and not not as like frustrated in that in that sense um what was the question good question um you lost me

You definitely lost me on that one but uh I I think for our our veterans I think we realized at halftime hey you know what um we have to bring it I mean that team’s not just going to go away you have to put them away and um I I

Think to the starting group to their credit they went out there and I and I think Nicole especially I think he became a lot more aggressive in that second half and that was great to see he he actually looked at the basket scored and um and then we started firing at all

Cylinders and when we do that when we defend and we have Jamal and Michael and U nicoa playing at that level then then we’re allowed that allows us to go on runs like that so I give our our starters credit for you know hey man let’s pick it up and they did Coach

We’ve seen ni do that before he only attempted one shot in the first half is that him just trying to get teammates engaged andol you know I thought it was a couple different things I think one you know Jamal was uh was aggressive and effective to start you know and uh so

That was he was you know getting a lot of those looks and then the the way Nola is defended in certain nights in the post to double team and what teams are doing more and more Vic is you know in the pocket when he catches in the pocket

They really coll colling so now it’s it’s that shot we’ve seen him shoot so many times is not that easy of a shot now because you have so many people collapsing so I I trust Nia but you know when he’s aggressive even with all that

Being said he still has to find a way to be aggressive and so we started putting him in more picking roles getting him in the pocket you know keep the floor spaced and flat and uh and that’s kind of what got him going and helped get the

Team going as well do you or or anyone else need to say something to to him at halftime of a game like that when when he’s not looking at The Rim as much no I mean it’s um again I I trust Nicole we’ve got nine years together and um I

Was going to keep on calling his number I mean like I was calling play calls for him the post-ups weren’t yielding field goal attempts because of the double team so okay let’s let’s make sure how do we get him a look and that’s probably the

Best way to do that is to put him in Middle pick and roll and let Jamal find him in the pocket and then he’s shooting or he’s facilitating behind it but um you know Nia is a great player and he’s going to read the game at a high level

And take what the defense gives him just curious if you had a chance tonight or even today to talk to is just about tonight uh yeah I spoke to him before the game and when we were in Charlotte a few weeks ago uh which I believe was

Right before Christmas uh you know we had to kick him out of our locker room he was in a locker room before the game talking to everybody hugging everybody um and then tonight obviously it’s always great you know so now we have two of those done I think Jeff now

Is we have Bruce coming I think this month and then Thomas Bryant will come when Miami visits but I think it’s always great for those guys to get their their moment and their recognition for the impact they had in helping us win and some guys their impact was more

Noticeable on the court some guys like ish maybe less noticeable on the court to the fans but we all know and that’s why when you see his teammates all the teammates out there at half court when he’s getting his ring uh you can see the camaraderie the Brotherhood the

Togetherness um that we had and that group will always be a special group in in De nugget history how was uh a back yeah he’s uh I was just talking to him I think he’s pretty good you know he’s able to get through the game it was

Great having him back and uh I I think one he hadn’t played uh since Christmas Day and two he’s got you know stitches in his hand and a shooting hand but he said overall he felt pretty good and it was great to be back out there so I’m

Glad he’s back back and we’ll have a couple days to get him ready for his next game at Golden State was there a defensive player the game Chan tonight the zek Naji yeah I thought Zeke 13 boards three blocks uh his defensive communication was on point early loud continuous uh

And and I thought he had a really good impact on that end for us first half you guys go with the full bench group second half stagger a starter out there just uh obviously full bench in some situations it won’t yield that but what do you like

About Mike with that group what do you like about kcp with that group that helps them kind of get into their stuff yeah I mean it was to your point you know we had the fiveman bench unit in at once and that didn’t go well for us so

Uh in the second half at halftime I made the decision I said we’re going to keep one starter out there at all times uh you know Pope is a race horse he can play the whole quarter which he did and then uh once we took him out to start

The fourth getting Michael back out there and they they were also playing a lot of Zone with that second unit so getting Michael Porter out there is a Zone Buster the funny thing is he got great looks that just weren’t going down for him but um I thought that fourth

Quarter group whether it is with Michael the start um or even just all all five bench guys once I got Julian in for Michael both those guys played well down the stretch in the minutes that they received one more how much happier were you would sort of just the I I guess the

Mental focus in closing that game then then last time in Charlotte where uh after you guys got the big lead in the third it sort of Slipped Away pretty quickly yeah I mean it’s always nice when you don’t have to put your starters back in you know and you and get guys

Rest it’s a long season we’ve played a lot of ball games so yeah I was I was impressed with the group to started the fourth quarter that it didn’t go from 25 whatever it was down to 13 you know we were able to you know weather weather

That storm play our brand of basketball that Reggie played well Christian pton Zeke Michael those guys had some really good minutes and allowed us to stay away from uh having to go back to our starters which is a which is a good thing as I mentioned thanks everybody

Hear what Coach Malone had to say after the win vs the Hornets.

Find Denver Nuggets news, gear, tickets and more right here: https://linktr.ee/denvernuggets

#nba #denvernuggets #nuggets #basketball #coachmalone #michaelmalone
Coach Malone Post Game Press Conference After Win vs Hornets 🎙