Nuggets coach Michael Malone isn’t interested in whatever distractions have trickled into Houston’s locker room. Denver’s sixth-year coach has his own “laundry list” of problems to address.
As the Rockets roll into Denver for Monday’s game, reeling from James Harden’s franchise-altering trade request as well as several ongoing COVID cases, Malone is doing a personal audit on his 0-2 squad.
“You can’t run from the truth,” he said after Sunday’s practice. “We’re 0-2, and we haven’t played a 48-minute game yet. … We have to cut our turnovers down, we gotta rebound better, we gotta guard the three better, we gotta get back in transition.”
In addition to underscoring improvement on the glass, where the Nuggets rank second-to-last in the NBA, Malone included himself among those who need to be better, too.
“Hopefully tomorrow night is a different outcome, so we can all take a little bit of a breath,” he said.
It was the Kings’ second-chance points that led to Denver’s loss on opening night. Against the Clippers on Friday night, film revealed porous perimeter defense, lackluster effort on the defensive glass and a failure to bring energy all four quarters.
“Itap not like we’re delusional and don’t know that we’re not playing for 48 minutes,” backup center Isaiah Hartenstein said.
Hartenstein was part of a strong second-half effort against Los Angeles to make the game respectable. At halftime Friday night, the Nuggets were getting pummeled, 25-11, on the glass. Malone said he challenged his starters, specifically, to crash harder.
“We had guys that had played 14, 15 minutes in a half and had zero rebounds and one rebound,” Malone said, referencing everyone in the starting lineup outside of Nikola Jokic, who had five. “This has been a point of emphasis even before we started playing preseason games. … When we don’t rebound, we don’t win games.”
The spotlight shined most unfavorably on Michael Porter Jr. (three rebounds) and Paul Millsap (one rebound), two frontcourt pillars capable of making an impact on the boards. Porter was blunt in his assessment of Monday nightap game against a depleted Rockets unit.
“Yeah, there is no trap right now,” Porter said. “We know we need to get this win. … Even if they were playing with five blind people, we would go out there and we would be focused.”
Malone was equally as blunt about Porter, who began Friday’s game on Kawhi Leonard but was eventually switched off less dynamic big men.
“Do your job,” Malone said. “Kawhi’s a small forward. Michael’s a small forward. If you gotta hide a guy then he shouldn’t be in the starting lineup.”
Porter, who’s played the equivalent of one full regular season if you include last year’s 19 playoff games, knows his defense will be an ongoing topic of discussion.
“Itap come a long way from the beginning but still has a ways to go,” he said. “… Experience is everything.”
Green’s status: Veteran power forward JaMychal Green went through parts of practice Sunday, but remained sidelined for the live portions. Monday will be his third straight game missed due to an ongoing calf strain. His absence, particularly on the glass, has been notable.
“The reason you’re excited about having a guy like JaMychal Green come to Denver was the toughness, the work ethic, the rebounding, doing all the dirty work,” Malone said.
