KUWT 2/14 – Malone “I feel bad for Nikola” find out why as a hoarse Malone explains a horrible loss

KUWT 2/14 – Malone “I feel bad for Nikola” find out why as a hoarse Malone explains a horrible loss

Anybody no I don’t think it was an effort issue I think the guys have played hard I think uh they got going they played last night and I think they started to find a rhythm and late in the game uh dearon Fox took over not best we need everybody to be better you

Know I mean it was I mean the bench the starting unit um when you without your starting back court uh it’s not just on Nia because he’s the MVP it’s it’s on everybody’s shoulders to go out there and play to the best of your ability and uh thought our guys played extremely

Hard but gave ourselves a chance uh we’re up four late and I think they closed 13 to5 um and just too many mistakes down the stretch you know some guys just making things up defensively and then uh costly turnovers um obviously um tough way to

Go into the break losing three in a row but got a chance to get our bodies right our mind’s right and attack these last 27 games I think if we’re not healthy I mean we have the best fiveman starting unit in the league in the last three games we

Haven’t had those five guys together so I think it’s more of that uh at least we defended tonight I mean that was my big thing to our team today Harrison was the last two games we are 30th in three-point percentage we are 30th in field goal percentage so if you’re not

Making shots which we aren’t you got to get stops to to try to stay in the game and we didn’t do that at sack we didn’t do that at Milwaukee I felt like tonight yes as Vinnie said the defense surely got uh worse as the game went along but

Overall 102 points allowed 43 from the field and only nine May threes those are really really improved numbers from uh the earlier games against that team what were you seeing on some of those defens yeah just him getting down get into his spots um you know that’s what he had 40 points

Last night goes out and gets 30 tonight he’s one of the more Dynamic guards in the league so uh give him credit and we have to be better uh attack aggression uh I I thought AG’s 25 and 15 were uh impactful he played downhill and um when Aaron

Plays with that kind of mentality as you know Katie um he’s a different player and he makes us a different team um so we need that from him got to the foul line eight times too so um it’s it’s just too bad man that was a game that I felt I wanted

To win for our guys you know they worked so hard and um obviously we just were not able to close it out say it again kid right oh yeah no I couldn’t agree more and you know you try to prepare guys for that you know you talk to him about it

Going into the season you know that was the main uh point of emphasis in training camp in San Diego is that you know we have a bull on our back now and for 82 games we’re going to get everybody’s best um you know from a team

In Sacramento or from teams that may be down in the standings there are no easy nights for us and um give them credit they played last night and even yes we were underman but you know they came in here and you know took it from us at the

End so uh we got to regroup and we got to realize that those 27 games to go most importantly we just can’t think we’re going to ease into the 27 games we have to hit the ground running we stumbled going into the break well we got to sprint out of the

Break it’s not easy and look at the standings I mean we’ve lost three in a row and you know we went from being tied for first to being maybe I don’t know two games out of first place now uh Minnesota’s playing at a high level OKC’s playing at a high level Clippers

Are playing at a high level so and then you have teams like Phoenix like Dallas like New Orleans like Sacramento who are all waiting for somebody to drop so if if you’re thinking that there’s a switch that we can just turn on well now you’re

Going to drop down to the you know a Feeding Frenzy and so we just have to be really mature and responsible with our approach and we’re not going to go 27 and0 but we just got to make sure we’re bringing it every night and playing the right way

That oh always going to start with our defense you know I mean like it’s um I think maybe we’re 10 10 or 11 in the on the season a defensive rating um you know but then you had last two games that sack at Milwaukee where we

Guarded nobody and so we just can’t be uh we’re just really Jackle and hide right now like each night I don’t know which team’s going to show up defensively and uh that can’t be be that we’re going to miss shots like we are against Milwaukee we were eight of 30 on

Wide open threes so after the game they talked about how they locked us up we generated 30 wideopen threes the nearest Defender was from me to you we made eight so we’re not making shots but when that happens Ryan I I just want our defense to be a hell of a lot more

Consistent and I know that in clutch games our defense has been great but it’s got to be just be more consistent game to game quarter to quarter and half to half oh I’m hoping it’s I’m hoping it’s very rewarding for everybody you know um and as Jamal and I were talking about it

Today this is the first time we’re going through it you know Golden State went through it you know four times um you know pop and San Antonio they went through it a bunch of times well this is you can talk you can talk to people how

Hard is it but you got to walk that you got to go through it yourself to really understand it and we played into June and our guys that were here last year are definitely physically mentally and emotionally worn out played a lot of basketball and so I think getting away I

Feel bad for Nia you know he’s got to go to Indianapolis and hopefully he can find a way to just rest his mind but uh I’m hoping that this break allows everybody to come back rejuvenated and um you know kind of with a um a new uh pep in their step if you

Will to attack these 27 games that’s what I’m hoping for thanks everybody

Nuggets suffer one of their worst home losses of the year. Full Malone presser