Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone expressed his frustration following the Nuggets’ 145-118 home loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night.

When asked by a reporter if he intended to “wash away” the loss and move on quickly because it was one-sided, he made it clear that he would rather address the poor performance.

“F–k that man, no,” Malone said. “No, we don’t wash up. You don’t flush when you’re ashamed, you don’t flush when you’ve given up 145 points, you don’t flush when you haven’t played hard, haven’t played with effort, physicality, I don’t flush anything.”

The Knicks built a 12-point lead in the first quarter that grew to 23 points by halftime, a deficit that Denver never came close to overcoming.

New York basically dominated in every way, shooting a remarkable 60.9 percent from the field and 52.8 percent from three-point range, while also making 14 of its 16 free throw attempts.

The Knicks also won the rebounding battle 43-33, had 45 assists to Denver’s 23 and nine turnovers to Denver’s 11.

Malone gave veteran guard Russell Westbrook credit for his play, but also named the team’s two best and longest-serving players: Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray:

“Well, I mean, like Russell Westbrook, he’s vocal – but we need more than Russell Westbrook. I need Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, I need people who have been here in this starting lineup to be vocal. And tonight you know we were embarrassed.

“We’ve played 16 games and we talk about effort, we talk about toughness, we talk about physicality. … And no matter who’s in, who’s out, who do we want to be as a team.” “So, yeah, leadership would be great, toughness would be great, physicality would be great, playing like you really care would be great , and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Both Jokić and Murray played crucial roles in the Nuggets winning the NBA championship two seasons ago, and Jokić is a three-time NBA MVP, but Malone did not absolve them of blame.

While Westbrook led the team Monday with 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, Jokić finished with 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting and Murray had 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting.

The loss dropped Denver to a disappointing 9-7 season record, leaving it in a tie for seventh place in the Western Conference with the Phoenix Suns.

After a five-game winning streak, the Nuggets have now lost four of their last six games. The end of the winning streak coincided with Jokić missing three games for personal reasons, but he was back in the last three games, two of which were defeats.

The Knicks, now 10-7, had perhaps their best performance of the season and have now won five of their last six games, making them one of the hottest teams in the NBA.

Denver has another chance to get back on track before the three-game Thanksgiving break as it will face the 4-12 Utah Jazz on Wednesday.