The Denver Nuggets arrived on Monday night at Ball Arena with the intention of maintaining the momentum gained from an awesome win against the Los Angeles Lakers over the weekend.

“Mission Failed. We’ll get ’em next time.”

The Nuggets were blown out at home 145-118 by the New York Knicks in an impressively poor defensive showing. New York scored 76 points at halftime with Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns combining for 56 points alone. The Nuggets as a team had just 53, unable to keep pace with the elite scoring pace set by New York’s star scorers.

“Tonight, we got embarrassed,” Michael Malone declared in an emotional postgame press conference. “What just happened…16 games in, we’re talking about effort. We’re talking about toughness. We’re talking about physicality.”

In the second half, the Nuggets didn’t fare much better. Anunoby continued to cook the Nuggets, and nobody was able to step up and guard him. Anunoby finished the game with 40 points, Brunson had 23 points and 17 assists, and Karl-Anthony Towns had 30 points on 12-of-15 from the field. It was a poor showing from Denver in slowing down Plan A, B, and C for New York.

“We didn’t make them do anything hard,” Nikola Jokic shared postgame. “Everything seemed to be really easy for them…we didn’t show up tonight.”

had 22 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists, playing only 32 minutes tonight. He wasn’t his normal precise self, shooting 7-of-13 from two-point range and 2-of-7 from three.

Jamal Murray had a solid showing offensively tonight with 20 points and seven assists. He looked a bit more comfortable out there playmaking and scoring, but he didn’t want to discuss anything individual tonight.

“We lost by 30, so it’s not on if I make a couple shots, oh nice, oh cool. Nikola makes a couple shots. Woo, great. We’re down 35, bro. It does not matter how I look, how anybody looks. It’s about everybody else on the team.”

To his point, the Nuggets didn’t look good in any way, shape or form around him.

If there’s any consolation, Russell Westbrook kept playing in the fourth quarter, getting downhill on drives and hitting three-pointers when given space. Westbrook had 24 points in the span of nine fourth quarter minutes and nearly got the Nuggets back into this one. Unfortunately, Denver’s defense had other plans.

“F*** that. We’re not flushing.”

There’s no question that Michael Malone was feeling embarrassed by this showing. On the night the Nuggets commended Malone for passing the all-time franchise wins record, the team gave an all-time “don’t care” performance, and Malone gave an all-time response presser.

Malone was fiery postgame. It sounds like he laid into his team tonight for the effort and execution, and rightfully so.

In response to a question about flushing the loss away as one to forget, Malone went the other way.

“No, no, no! We’re not flushing,” Malone emphasized in the opening of his postgame presser. “You don’t flush when you get embarrassed. You don’t flush when you gave up 145 points. You don’t flush when you didn’t play hard, didn’t play with effort, didn’t play with physicality. I’m not flushing anything.”

I asked him immediately after if the Nuggets look to their leaders in that situation. It’s interesting that he went directly to Russell Westbrook and how he set an example for playing hard, as opposed to Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.

“Russell Westbrook. He’s vocal, but we need more than Russell Westbrook. I need Nikola Jokic. I need Jamal Murray. I need guys that have been here in that starting lineup to be vocal.”

“Leadership would be great. Toughness would be great. Physicality would be great. Playing like you actually care would be great, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

This is an interesting moment for the Nuggets. They’re now 9-7. There’s a great team hidden within this one, and it’s possible that they’re finally starting to really miss Aaron Gordon. His steadiness as an effort and mentality guy would have helped in this situation.

Poor effort games happen too. It doesn’t mean the Nuggets can’t turn it around, but the degree to which Denver played soft defensively was notable. They committed just 18 fouls. Christian Braun and Peyton Watson combined for just one foul, which emphasizes how they didn’t push the boundaries in trying to make Brunson uncomfortable. Towns shot 12-of-15. There was nothing after the first six minutes of the first quarter that Jokic, DeAndre Jordan, or anyone else did to bother him.

Then, there was Anunoby, who had open shots the entire night. Porter and Julian Strawther were particularly egregious giving up those looks.

Do the Nuggets care to change? Do they have belief? Are they willing to go the extra mile and make multiple efforts going forward?

We will see.

Final Rotations