NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 20, 2020

Michael Malone

Denver Nuggets

Game 2: Pregame

Q. With regards to the transition defense, do you guys at all consider scaling back your offensive rebounding in an attempt to get back?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, we've talked about that. But when you look at their transition points, they're scoring off of made baskets, scoring off of made free throws. Obviously the turnovers, live ball turnovers, are a different category unto themselves. We had 16 turnovers, 22 points.

Against a great running team, you have to take bodies and get them back as opposed to having three, four guys crash. Not that we always do that, no. But it's definitely been a point of emphasis having offensive rebounding discipline.

Four and five can work the glass. We want one, two and three back. For our five men, if they're on the perimeter, don't even take a step towards the rim, just get back.

Once again, they scored off every possible scenario. Offensive rebounders or no. Just a much more concerted effort to get back to 48 minutes. That's the only chance we're going to have to beat this team if we get back.

Q. Obviously Anthony Davis is a heck of a player. What can you do to make it a little tougher on him? Game 1 you said you need to change things up on how you're defending him.

MICHAEL MALONE: Watching the film, we just have to play a lot smarter as well. One, he goes to the foul line 15 times, scoring 12 points. He got four points on spin-out lobs. Eight points on wing isolation plays.

It wasn't like they came down, were playing one play over and over and he was destroying us in the post. He only had two points in the post. I think we have to have greater KCP [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] awareness, know your personnel, what are his tendencies, which way does he like to drive.

We have to show a greater crowd to him. I think we left our bigs on an island at times. Timeout, we may have to switch up and get a little more aggressive at times.

The scary thing is when you put two on LeBron, two defenders on Anthony Davis, that's going to free and open up something else for somebody else.

What I found will be really important is eliminating his transition opportunities, just the easy ones. We talked about you can't get caught above him where he's going to get behind you for the lob play. Hopefully by us being a little bit smarter, more disciplined, that can take that 37 points and take it down to 36.

Q. I know obviously LeBron can do so many different things on the court. What part of his game do you consider him most dangerous, as a scorer or distributor?

MICHAEL MALONE: For me it's always been the play-making ability. Can he score, can he take over a game and put up big numbers? Yes. But I think what makes him a great player and arguably the greatest to ever do it is just the ability to make Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee, Alex Caruso, Rajon Rondo, Markieff Morris, all those guys better players. He's done that throughout his career. He only scored 15 points, but he had 12 assists.

That's always the catch-22 with LeBron. If you're scoring real easily, we got to give them help, double-team. I think like Nikola Jokic, they're the same in this regard. They welcome that, want an extra defender. Now you are putting two on the ball, they can just dissect you with their passing.

I would say for me by far LeBron's play making, his ability to make everyone better that is scariest.

Q. In this setting guys that aren't playing, guys that are inactive, are a part of the environment. How important has that been throughout this whole process?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, I think you don't have a home crowd, so you have to rely on each other to kind of bring the energy and create that atmosphere for your group. So that's part of it. We knew that going in, we'd have to bring our own energy and support each other.

I think what you are seeing time and time again is benches are very loud when things are going their way. It's quiet as a church mouse when things aren't going their way. A lot of front running benches. We've seen a lot of that in the post-season.

I think it's great. If you're not in the game, you should be actively supporting your team because there is no Pepsi Center, there is no mile-high altitude advantage. We have to create an advantage somehow, so you want your bench to do that.

It's a lot easier when you're playing well. The challenge is when things aren't going your way, can you stay engaged, supportive, and help the guys that are in the game.

Q. What do you think about the job that Jerami Grant did on defense in Game 1, if there's anything specific you're going to be asking him to change for Game 2?

MICHAEL MALONE: I give Jerami a lot of credit. This is our third round obviously. In Oklahoma City he was a four man and played backup five. For us, he's been mostly a four. Then because of injuries, no Gary Harris, Will Barton, Jerami has become a starting small forward who has guarded Donovan Mitchell, Paul George and Kawhi. Now as a door prize for making the Western Conference Finals, you get to guard LeBron. Jerami doesn't shy away from it. He takes a lot of pride on that end of the floor, has given tremendous effort. I thought he has done a pretty good job.

Not one person is going to guard LeBron. That's something we have been preaching. We did it last year against the Clippers. You can't guard Kawhi and Paul George by yourself. All five have to guard the ball. I thought Jerami's point of attack defense was pretty good. We have to continue to give him help behind that.

Q. It seems like looking at the numbers a higher percentage of your shots were contested by defenders who were closer in the Lakers game than the series before that. Are you planning on doing anything to try to get your guys more open looks?

MICHAEL MALONE: No, I want contested shots all night long (laughs).

Yes, of course. We want to get higher quality shots whenever we can, generate open looks. You have to give them some credit. Obviously they did a lot of switching. Right from the get-go they switched every one of Jamal Murray's and Nikola Jokic's pick and rolls to keep bodies on bodies to take away that separation and airspace.

I thought Michael Porter had some great looks where he was wide open. Shots he normally makes that did just not go down for us. If we can play better defense and rebound, that allows us to get out and run and attack and get better quality looks.

Then within the halfcourt we know they're going to be aggressive, they're being physical. We have to be able to set better screens to free our teammates up and do a better job of moving without the ball, not allowing us to get caught standing still and watching because that becomes easy to guard.