NBA Finals: Nuggets coach Michael Malone Criticizes Denver's mentality and approach in game 2

First question on the right side. Brandon Cristal from KOA here in Denver. Can you kind of, I don't know, figure out why do you think your starters that weren't joker struggled scoring, I guess? Well, I don't think that's the biggest question. Now, let's talk about effort. I mean, this is NBA Finals and we're talking about effort. That's a huge concern of mine. You know, and you guys probably thought I was just making up some storyline after game one when I said we didn't play well. We didn't play well. And tonight, you know that the starting lineup to start the game. It's 10 to 2 Miami. Start the third quarter. They scored 11 points in 2 minutes and 10 seconds. And we just got, you know, we had guys out there that were just whether feeling sorry for themselves for not making shots or thinking they can just turn it on or off. This is not the preseason. It's not the regular season. It's not round. This is the NBA Finals and that to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing. And I asked the team, I asked our players, you guys tell me why we lost. And they knew the answer. Miami came in here and outworked us. And we were by far our least disciplined game of these 16 or 17 playoff games, whatever it is now. So many breakdowns and they exploited every one of those breakdowns and scored. So if we're going to try to go down there and regain control this series and get home court advantage back, we're going to have to outwork Miami, which we didn't do tonight. And our discipline is going to have to be off the charts. Mike, here on the left. Michael, Mike Singer with the Denver Post. You mentioned the breakdowns. 17 of 35 from three Miami shot. How many of them were defensive breakdowns? You seem to call timeout on several of them. Maybe had some miscommunications. Oh, there's no maybe. No, there was definitely miscommunication. There was game plan breakdowns, personnel breakdowns. You know, there are guys like Max Struths. And you know that Max, and I said it after game one, he's 0 for 9 in game one. You know, he's going to make shots. And he got off to a really hot start tonight, cooled down a little bit. But he gets 10 threes off. Gabe Vinson gets six off. Kevin Love gets six off. Duncan Robinson gets three off. And those are guys that we're supposed to have a heightened awareness to. As I mentioned after game one, the fact that they got 16 wide open threes was concerning. They didn't make them. And so we got lucky in game one. Tonight, they made them. So it was definitely a breakdown in communication. It was definitely a breakdown in our game plan. And like I said, we just were not nearly as disciplined as you need to be in the NBA finals. Third row on your right. Coach Dan Devine, Yahoo Sports. It seemed like you had some success earlier in the game, smothering that Bam Robinson DHL. And it seemed to give you a lot more trouble in the fourth quarter. I'm wondering what changed in terms of the way you were approaching that or the guys were executing that? Well, I don't have to watch the film. I mean, give them credit. They play with tremendous pace. And they never let up. And so we got to make sure we're doing a better job of getting our energy up and not letting them outwork us and create separation and kind of put us in a spin cycle, which they did quite a few times. I mean, fourth quarter defense, I felt for three quarters tonight, actually, the defense was pretty good. I believe going into the fourth quarter, they were shooting 43%. But in the fourth quarter, you give up 36 points. I'm 69% from the field. That's not going to cut it, man. That's not going to cut it. Om, back left. Michael Om, Yung Sok ESPN. How did they make everything such a struggle after that big run in that first second quarter? It looked like they were content to let Yoka just kind of score and take away everybody around it. But how did they make everything such a struggle in the offensive end? Well, I felt, you know, I felt the way Nikola closed that third quarter was tremendous. You know, I mean, it kind of got us a little bit of rhythm going into that fourth quarter. Gave us a little bit of breathing room. And then they started the fourth quarter 13 to 2. To me, the wheels fell off, really fell off to start that fourth quarter. And they were getting whatever they wanted, threes, layups. And that allowed them once again to sit back in their zone offense, slow the game down. And we had a hard time getting stops. And then we had a hard time getting made baskets on the other end. So our defense has to be held a lot better. That's two fourth quarters now in game one and two where our fourth quarter defense has been non-existent. Right here in the front. Coach, Mateo Mayorga, Five Reasons Sports. Sticking with the three-point shooting, how much higher do pickup points have to be against Miami's three-point shooters following up in the series? Well, you have to understand who you're guarding. KYP discipline, you know. So if you're guarding a Duncan Robinson, a Gabe Vinson, a Kevin Love, a Max Struess, you have to guard them at the four-point line. I believe, talking about lack of discipline, I think we fouled at least three jump shooters tonight. So then you have to have the discipline to contest without fouling. Getting a hand up, giving them a place to land, whatever it may be. So, you know, Jamal had a great look at the end, you know. And I told the guys if we would have won this game tonight, you know, we would have stole one. And it didn't happen. The shot didn't go in and we lose by three points. But yeah, the three-point line is a huge concern coming in. The number one three-point shooting team in these playoffs. And did a decent job in game one by the numbers. But tonight, you know, they buried us. Chris? Yeah, Chris Thomason, Denver Gazette. Everybody, you've been so good at home in these playoffs. Everybody talks about the altitude, all that kind of stuff. How surprised were you that they had the final closing kick there tonight? Yeah, one, I think the altitude is too much is made of that, you know, I think and Miami's been here for probably like a week now. So they're acclimated. And so I really don't think that that's the reason why we've won games at home. I think our players deserve credit. Our fans deserve credit. But yeah, they came out in that fourth quarter with a huge sense of desperation and we didn't match that. Once again, 13-2 start. They kind of take control of the game. And just our inability or unwillingness to get stops and have a defensive mindset in the fourth quarter was very problematic. I mean again, the numbers speak for themselves. 36 points in the fourth quarter on 69% is going to make it really hard to win a game in the NBA Finals. Last two over here. Michael Mike, Singer Denver Post. You said Jamal got a good look at it. Did you at all consider calling a timeout there? Or do you like it when it's in transition and you can kind of scramble the defense and maybe catch them a little bit? Yeah, I think it's dependent upon the situation, you know, and their half-court defense was giving us a lot of trouble in that fourth quarter, you know, and you take a timeout, you let them get set, you let them review whatever play they think that we're going to run. And there's a great chance that we don't get a quality shot like Jamal got which was online and from my perspective looked like it had a great chance of going in and we've seen Jamal make shots like that before so um some nights Yeah, I think you know We can take the timeout other nights give our guys the freedom to get out and run but with how well they were guarding in that quarter and how hard it was for us to Generate great looks. I felt in that transition. We're gonna have the best chance to get the look that we wanted Last question Michael second row here Michael Pino the ringer had 28 shots and a postseason low four assists for Jokic Was that something Miami did defensively or just guys missing shots Well, it's probably a combination and we have to give them credit Um, and we scored 108 points 52 from the field um 14 turnovers and 19 points. That's his concern in the fourth quarter four for 10, but um, you know, I trust Nicole he's gonna read the game he's gonna read how he's being guarded and he's also gonna pick a spot where he knows Regardless of how he's being guarded. We need him to score and be aggressive and look to score So whether it's 41 points only four assists or it's 25 points and 15 assists Nicole the one thing I trust about him is that he's going to make the right read time and time again Thank you coach. Thanks everybody