DENVER – At the end of the most embarrassing loss of the season for the Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks fans had taken over Ball Arena. The chants could be heard loud and clear. You could hear everything from “OG Anunoby!” to “Deuce” every time reserve guard Miles McBride brought home another 3-pointer.

It wasn’t so much that the Nuggets lost 145-118 to New York, or that the Nuggets were never really in that game. It was the lack of effort that got Denver head coach Michael Malone on edge. It was the lack of energy. It was the lack of fight as the Knicks made their first run of the night. A lack of passion was evident in the third quarter.

A little less than 48 hours after their best performance of the season when they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, the Nuggets did a 180 on Monday night. They didn’t show up and allowed a hungry and aggressive Knicks team to drive them out of their own gym.

“F–that, I’m not blushing,” Malone said angrily when asked how he would deal with the loss. “You don’t blush when you’re embarrassed. You don’t blush if you don’t play hard or play with any physicality. Tonight we were ashamed. We have 16 games behind us and we are talking about effort. We have to ask ourselves the question: Who do we want to be as a team?

“It would be great to play like you really care.”

It wasn’t so much about Malone’s loss on Monday night. In fact, this is a culmination of events that have unfolded over time. There were four defeats in five games last season. Denver’s regular season began with home losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Clippers. When Nikola Jokić missed time due to the birth of his second child, it resulted in a road loss for a New Orleans Pelicans team missing almost all of its key rotation players. This was followed by a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, where the Nuggets looked slow, sluggish and unhappy on offense.

And yet there were moments of genius. A home win over the Thunder. The Lakers’ cheering on Saturday night. After that 0-2 start, they won seven of eight games. The peaks were there. But the valleys were low. The Lakers’ dissolution on the road looked like the Nuggets were finally turning things around, even if it came after a home loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

This is what has so frustrated Malone and the Nuggets in general. Of course, in an 82-game season, there will be some periods where a team doesn’t play great basketball. That’s the nature of an NBA schedule that’s so demanding. Sometimes what happens on the floor has very little to do with what is happening on the floor. An NBA coach knows this and knows that there are some things that are out of his control. But Monday night was a turning point for Malone. When the Knicks gained a lead, the Nuggets failed. When the Knicks played physical, the Nuggets couldn’t match the physicality.

“Russell Westbrook played with great effort, and he’s 36 years old,” Malone said. “But I need Nikola Jokić. I need the guys who were in the starting lineup here to raise their voices.”

What Malone doesn’t want is for Monday night or last Sunday night to become the norm in Memphis. He doesn’t want inconsistency to become the norm. And what were the Nuggets through 16 games? They were a team with a typically nice offense, but one that didn’t defend particularly well. When they won an NBA title in 2023, they were arguably the best offensive and defensive team in the league.

The Basketball 100

The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 compelling profiles, top basketball writers explain their picks and reveal the history of the NBA.

The story of the greatest games in NBA history.

Buy

So far they are 17th in the league with a defensive rating of 114. This number will not be enough to win another title. Malone knows that. His players know that. These Denver Nuggets can definitely score. But can they stop anyone? Saturday night’s 127-102 win over the Lakers was one of Denver’s best performances of the season on both ends of the court. Going from such a complete team in one evening to being so confused was a huge contrast.

That explains why Malone was so heated on Monday night. The Nuggets are 9-7. They are currently in eighth place in the Western Conference. Malone doesn’t want these to be the Nuggets. And once you get to the 25 or 30 game mark, teams start to get used to what they’re going to be. Is it impossible to change the stripes once you’ve created them? Of course not. But changing these stripes requires a lot of work.

“It’s energy,” guard Jamal Murray said. “It’s effort. It’s discipline. It depends on how much you want it and how much you care about it. And we had none of that tonight.”

Denver’s defense was terrible against the Knicks. The Nuggets allowed New York to shoot 60 percent from the field. The Knicks made 19 of their 36 3-point shots. Anunoby set a career high with 40 points. The Nuggets did not defend the point of attack. They didn’t defend the rim. They allowed New York point guard Jalen Brunson to get wherever he wanted off the dribble, and when he did, Denver’s defense usually collapsed.

But Monday evening didn’t go as planned. If the Nuggets are to get where they want to go, Malone is right. You have to show more fight and more resilience. They need to be more willing to get into the proverbial dirt with teams and they need to play with more energy. This won’t always be the case, but it needs to be the case more often. At this point, the Nuggets are setting the wrong trend, and Malone and Jokić want to put an end to it immediately.

“We didn’t show up this evening,” Jokić said. “I think it’s important to learn from games like this because other teams will look at what they did to us. I think we can learn. But it’s always good to get a slap in the face so we can wake up.”

(Photo by Nikola Jokić and Karl-Anthony Towns: Justin Tafoya / Getty Images)