Michael Malone says the team lost a Major Opportunity with Magic Loss

Michael Malone says the team lost a Major Opportunity with Magic Loss

Coach can you walk us through that last play guys were trying to accomplish there uh trying to score obviously that’s the the goal try to get Jamal and Nicole a two-man game and get Nicole in the pocket they wind up switching it and um as Jamal drove Wagner uh Jaylen slid

Kind of bounced back out made a good contest and uh know Jamal got it up in time we went in and out but you know we we lost this game in the third quarter that’s back toback nights where our third quarter defense has been just completely non-existent we gave up 44 in

The third last night we gave up 41 in the third tonight on 75% shooting and um you know as I told our guys whatever you’re doing at halftime it’s not working you know individually and collectively we I’m beating guys out of the locker room at halftime get out

There and get ready to play Man I mean we’re up uh double figures at halftime but you know give them credit they just kept uh attacking they were Relentless uh they killed us on the three point line tonight um just yeah disappointing disappointing outcome obviously where do

You feel like the defense when arise especially in regards to the three-point shot that’s not something they typically hit at a high clip than they were able to hit 17 tonight yeah I mean they coming off of a game where they set a franchise record at 25 in sack and the

Double overtime loss and with so many of their guys that that are out to injury you know they’re playing other guys that uh are capable Shooters Jaylen sugs obviously had a huge night going seven of nine starts in transition our pickup points were poor um you know not running

Guys that are runoffs off the three-point line um overh helping at times I think when you give up 17 to 36 um there’s probably examples of um transition half court pick and roll catch and shoot offensive rebounds whatever it may be so just a really poor

Awareness to your point Matt in terms of taking away the three-point shot and uh you know Jaylen Suggs once he got going you know we tried to identify him as a guy we wanted to get off the line but you know we just weren’t able to do that

For whatever reason 22 points scored in the fourth quarter tonight did you like the shots that the team was generating tonight start beginning with the bench and not with the starters in the fourth quarter or for the game in the fourth quarter uh I don’t know I have a better

Answer probably tomorrow after watching the film I thought our shots were okay you know obviously starting back court was 09 from three that doesn’t happen very often with Jamal and kcp um we got into the bonus early and I thought we should have gotten to the

Foul line more you know just kind of imposed our will down there attacking the basket getting the col down the ball in the in the post they want a double team creating open shots but um I thought our shot selection in the fourth quarter was okay I mean for 37 in the 1

30 in the second 31 in the third the offense was going really well and to your point in that fourth quarter it just uh we couldn’t get a damn stop and so now you’re taking the ball out of the net every time and they’re really good

Half a defensive team and uh that’s not the way you want to play against them especially in crunch time Orlando draws fouls better than anyone in the league PA ends up uh getting 15 at the line tonight including the four in the last minute what how do you try to handle

That when when they offense is so focused on on sort of drawing contact getting to the line now yeah show your hands you know um I thought there were a couple of calls that could have gone either way I thought Aaron played some pretty good defense on a few of those

Possessions Walling up going vertical um you know but you know Baner is a tough cover obviously 32 11 and 10 tonight so it’s not just on Aaron you got to have help behind that and when he’s putting his head down driving to his right hand

Uh you got to be in a shrink you got to show him a crowd and I felt too often tonight we had guys that were just on the outside looking in did did some of the foul trouble affect how you had to handle rotations even in the fourth with

With not being able to go with Payton for stretches um no not really how difficult is it to refocus after after you have an emotional win like you did last night and you’re back here playing less than 24 hours later well I give our guys credit I thought

You know we were got up by as many as 18 so I felt that we were I don’t think the question is how CH challenging is it to refocus and get up because I think we had that I think the challenge the question for me is how do you sustain it

For four quarters and that’s what we weren’t able to do tonight and as I told our guys before the game um you know don’t don’t give last night’s win back tonight you know that was an incredible 54 close and proba will come from behind Victory and then you know we spoiled a

Golden opportunity tonight and once again give that team credit they had a lot of guys out but the guys that did play played hard they played aggressive and just like us last night they never stopped competing and they got back in the game and uh they became the

Aggressor like we were last night and know we wind up coming up just short so uh but for me I think to our guys credit they they were ready I thought in the first half our starting group and our Ben Unit were pretty good but coming out of halftime for whatever

Reason that’s been a real challenge as of late and we have to you know Rectify that as quickly as possible I know you’re frustrated with the the scheduling and exhausted from how it’s been you do play just four back to backs the rest of the way to fewer than

Anybody else in the league is there some sort of comfort to be taken from the fact that maybe the schedule does ease up as the season starts to drag into this later section yeah well you just you know thank goodness we’re able to get through it I mean if you look at you

Know the fact that tonight tonight was our ninth back-to-back and there are two teams in our division Minnesota’s played two back Tob backs OKC’s played three I believe so you know to consider where we are with everything that we’ve gone through with injuries and schedule um

Yeah maybe maybe you can find a way to take advantage of only having I think one post Allstar break and um I don’t think we have any more this month maybe I could be wrong but only four more the rest of the season to your point Matt

And but we can’t just rely on that you know I mean like we we have a team team coming in here on Sunday that we have to have the appropriate respect for and we have to come out and play our brand of basketball not for a half not for three

Quarters but for four and I think that’s been one of our biggest challenges this year is playing as close to 48 minutes as possible and there are some nights where we’re not doing that and it’s going to bite you in the butt like it did tonight thank you coach thanks everybody here tonight

In this revealing press conference, Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone delves into the team’s close loss against the Orlando Magic, with a final score of 122-120. Coach Malone discusses the challenges faced in the third quarter, the team’s defensive strategy against the three-point shot, and the performance of key players like Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. This insightful video is a must-watch for all Nuggets fans seeking an in-depth analysis of the game and the team’s strategy moving forward.

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