Coach Malone Post Game Press Conference vs. Wizards 🎙

Coach Malone Post Game Press Conference vs. Wizards 🎙

The approach yeah proud of the guys you know um this game was a scary game every game is scary for different reasons and tonight’s game was scary because you’re coming off of a quality Road win and you are worried about having a let down against a team with seven wins and

Though for the most part our guys did a really good job of approaching it the right way nicoa was phenomenal tonight from beginning to end um we had 12 blocks tonight uh s had a lot of activity but it was a good win for us just because we handle our business

How impressed are you with the consistency of this team to handle some of those types of games I think it’s near perfect if not perfect against team losing yeah I mean that’s um if you want to be a really good team you know you have to win the games you’re supposed to

Win and uh you know we never play records we never play we don’t go into a team meeting and say they’re seven and whatever we talk about kakma and Jordan pool and Gafford and Bagley and the shooting Off the Bench uh but the fact that we have won the large majority of

The the games against teams below 500 speaks to understanding who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish so um and that’s what happens when you’re the reigning world Champs you have to be up for those games because you know you going to get everybody’s best we talk so

Often about how yic triple double after triple double but he reads the game at such a high level and tonight it felt like they played single coverage on him all night long was aggressive for that reason is that what you saw is that yeah what do you think choosing to defend him

In that way I guess I love Wes no I mean nicoa you know we felt it about five days ago preparing for Joel em beat how do you guard a guy like that do you guard him one-on-one do you send a double team and to be honest when you

Play against a great player what I’ve learned over the many years is that you have to give them different looks Nicole has seen everything so he’s got an answer for everything um but I told our players today when we walk through their their sets and we walk through our

Offense how they going to guard us and I said I run the first play of every game for Nicole I said why do I do that and they all knew it because you want to see how they’re going to guard him that night they said exactly right so if

They’re going to guard him one-on-one which Boston did as well space the floor correctly let him go to work cuz eventually they’re going to have to send a double team and then you’re going to get yours and uh you know so nicoa was so efficient 42 points 12 boards eight

Assists three blocks and uh you know once again he continues to illustrate you know why he’s uh the player that he is he got a pretty big cheer as he was walking off the floor just now when he went to check back in with six and a

Half left they were applauding him them how cool is it for you just to sort of see him you know even deeper into his career be sort of that appointment viewing guy in Road cities and get that appreciation from from fans on the road well I think it’s it’s the highest honor

You know for for a player when you can go on the road and uh lead your team to a victory and you have the respect of the entire NBA community and most of the time you go on the road it’s a hostile environment but I think fans and true

Fans and students of the game they understand greatness and how fortunate they are to watch a player that um just plays the right way there’s a lot of talented players in this league but if you don’t love Nicole yic I don’t know what you’re looking for the guy is

Just uh super talented high IQ and one of the more unselfish players that you’re ever going to find and when I was in Cleveland for 5 years we we would get that with LeBron a lot people would you know at the end of games chant MVP and applaud the effort after witnessing you

Know greatness in front of them so that’s always cool for him to get that and uh it was a nice uh recognition by the fans here in DC saying all that it’s still unique that an opposing crowd would PP when s to free throw from the other team that’s just you saw LeBron

But that’s unique oh yeah it doesn’t God bless you okay one’s enough um it doesn’t happen very often to your point Scott you’ve been around the league a long time um so I think it’s just recognizing greatness you know here’s a guy that was a two-time MVP as

A second round draft pick who’s brought a franchise their first world championship in history uh 47 years in the making and now he’s a Finals MVP as well so I think you know when when the schedule comes out people in their different 29 respective cities Circle

Hey man Nicole y just coming to town I’m going to take my kid to go see him play because it it’s that kind of a uh you an opportunity so yeah tremendous and again really thoughtful of the fans to give him that love and recognition what are

You going to tell after the game tonight I’m going to tell him to uh he should had two more assists you know what I mean um I’m going to tell him you know um and he already knows it but my concern all morning was the first thing I said when

We met and the last thing I said before they went out tonight was we’re world champions go out there and play like it and I I felt Nia set the example right away and so we want him to be a leader you know this is Nicole jokic’s team

This is Jamal Murray’s team and so you can lead vocally but you can also lead by your example and I think Nia is a phenomenal leader and the example he sets night in and night out did the team show more resilience than some way expected or is it something you can

Never know ADV before a game yeah I mean once again I I I knew we were going to get a fight from them they’ve been in games uh their players have pride they have talent they played last night tough back to back I mean I’m not making any

Excuses for Washington but they played at 7:00 last night and the second night of it back toback they played at 6:00 so uh you know not not the easiest back to back especially when you have the Nuggets coming into town but um know those guys we we knew we’re going to

Have to work for it and we exactly what happened tonight so I’m just happy that we got the win and nobody got hurt uh three fouls for Zeke in in his five minutes tonight oh I was going to say where’s this voice coming from right the

Voice of God uh the three fouls for him in five minutes there have been a handful of games where where he’s gotten into that quick foul trouble and it’s sort of impacted the minutes he’s been able to get what kind of ation are you guys having with him about defending

Without fouling what yeah well it’s funny I think two of the three were legal screens I mean so it wasn’t like there he was playing defense and he was just you know reaching showing his hands uh I think two of the three fouls he had were just uh illegal screens where he’s

Trying to do the right thing but unfortunately he was called for the foul uh went with DJ in the second half you know we went into this game not knowing if Gafford was going to play he had been out with concussion protocol and so Gafford was out they started baggley

Who’s played very well for them and they their backup was Baldwin you know Patrick Baldwin Jr Off the Bench a good shooter and then when gaffer was available and now we knew Bagley would be the backup and obviously DJ gives us a little bit more size and physicality

But um hasn’t been easy for Zeke he’s just got to stay ready um when he gets a chance to play go out there and impact the game rebounding defending whatever may be I did think Christian Brown had a good bounceback game as I told him walking off the court you know it’s not

Just about making shot just about for you CB your energy and your effort and and just rebounding and flying around out there and I thought he had a couple of really good stretches tonight as did Payton really quick you just mentioned the blocks and I wanted to ask who got

The defensive player of the game chain Nia yeah Nola he had a 12 boards three blocks one steel five deflections and I know there’s a lot of people out there there’s a segment that say know you can’t win a championship with Nico as a center and he’s not a good defensive

Player and I think that’s just uh that’s the eye test because he doesn’t touch the top of the backboard but if you watch him every night and uh the impact he has on that end it’s real and he earned it tonight thank you thanks everybody

Hear what Coach Malone had to say after the win.

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Coach Malone Post Game Press Conference vs. Wizards 🎙