‘I don’t think we played well in Game 1,’ says Nuggets coach Michael Malone

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DENVER — Coming off an impressive victory to take a 1-0 lead in the 2023 NBA Finals, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone offered effusive praise of his team’s performance when he met with reporters Saturday.

“I don’t think we played well in Game 1,” he said.

OK. Let’s try that again.

Coming off an impressive victory to take a 1-0 lead in the 2023 NBA Finals, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone echoed the message he delivered to his players in the locker room at Ball Arena on Thursday night.

“I told our players today: Don’t read the paper, don’t listen to the folks on the radio and TV saying that this series is over and that we’ve done something,” Malone said. “Because we haven’t done a damn thing.”

In fairness, Malone did compliment multiple aspects of his squad during his Q&A: the reserve corps of Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and Christian Braun, the peerless chemistry between Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray in the two-man game, Jokić’s “underrated defense,” etc. But film study revealed enough room for improvement to hold off on planning the parade route a bit longer.

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone looks on during practice for Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Saturday in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

“I thought our pick-and-roll defense was poor. I thought our ‘shrink the floor’ was poor,” Malone said. “They got 11 offensive rebounds. Bam [Adebayo] had four. Jimmy [Butler] had three. So there’s so many areas we can clean up.”

It’s understandable that Malone came into the weekend intent on making sure his players don’t suddenly start believing the hype. (Though we do appreciate Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon’s ongoing support for staying up on the news and remaining informed about the world around him.) As dominant as Jokić looked, as lethal as Murray was, as much as the Nuggets towered over the smaller Heat, and as impressively as Denver played for three quarters in Game 1 — 84 points on 55.9% shooting, a scorching 121.7 offensive rating — you have to play four at this level.

“Some possessions we play amazing, and some possessions we didn’t play good,” Jokić said. “Some…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-06-03 23:44:56

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