Nuggets' Mike Malone sends warning to Denver after 'getting away with' Kings win
12/17/2024 12:40 PM
The Denver Nuggets avoided disaster during Monday’s 130-129 road win over the Sacramento Kings. After jumping out to a 41-21 at the end of the first quarter, Sacramento outscored Denver 82-55 over the second and third quarters. However, trailing by 10 with four minutes remaining, the Nuggets would close on a 21-10 run to secure the victory.
After the win, Denver’s third-straight, head coach Michael Malone warned his players about their inconsistent effort.
“That was a tale of a lot of different quarters,” Malone said. “And as I just told our team, the team in the first quarter and fourth quarter is who we need to be. Our defense was outstanding in both of those quarters. And you know when you build a 23-point lead in the first half, the other team is gonna get desperate and they’re gonna make a run, but you have to be able to shut that run off. And that carried over to the third quarter. And all they were doing was just getting it out, make, miss, or turnover, and running the ball down our throat. And we didn’t have a lot of resistance for a while.”
“But I have to give our guys a lot of credit. To close that thing on a 21-10 run and to win this game by one point when we easily could’ve just given up and let go of the rope, our guys didn’t do that, they haven’t done that the whole season. Jamal Murray got going in the fourth quarter. Obviously, he had 15 points overall in that quarter, but he had nine decisive points during that 21-10 run to close. So let’s not be a two-quarter team. If we wanna be a great team, if we wanna be a team that’s gonna try to make some noise in this league, we can’t try to play for two quarters. We got away with it tonight, but we have to be better.”
"We got away with it tonight but we have to be better" -Coach Malone #MileHighBasketballpic.twitter.com/bY1vvldNq3
— AltitudeTV (@AltitudeTV) December 17, 2024
Murray finished with a team-high 28 points on 11-of-26 shooting with six assists and one turnover in the win. Nikola Jokic turned in another triple-double, posting 20 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists on 8-of-19 shooting.
Nuggets battling to keep pace in Western Conference during road trip
The Nuggets have rebounded from a 4-7 stretch with three straight wins over the Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers and Kings. Monday’s victory brings Denver to 14-10 on the season, good for fifth place in the Western Conference.
Led by Jokic, Malone’s squad has continued to field one of the league’s best offenses. The Nuggets rank seventh on that end, averaging 119.2 points, 34.0 assists and 14.9 turnovers per game on 49/38/75 shooting splits.
Jokic has elevated his dominance to another level, averaging 30.9 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 9.9 assists per game on 55.8 percent shooting from the field and a career-high 48.9 percent from three. He is the frontrunner to win the MVP award, which would mark his fourth.
Denver has been average defensively, ranking 15th this season.
The Nuggets will look to build more momentum as they close out a three-game road trip this week against the Portland Trail Blazers and New Orleans Pelicans.
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