NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 22, 2020

Michael Malone

Denver Nuggets

Game 3: Postgame

Denver Nuggets 114, Los Angeles Lakers 106

THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach.

Q. Where would you be tonight without the play of Jerami Grant?

MICHAEL MALONE: Oh, we'd be down 3-0, that's the bottom line. Jerami was spectacular. 26 points, got to the foul line 12 times, made 10. Had really good defensive possessions guarding some of the best players in the world.

We knew going in what we were going to get every night from Nikola, Jamal. You always wonder who is going to step up and be that third scorer. For us tonight obviously Jerami came through in a big, big way at both ends of the floor.

Proud of Jerami. Great to see him have some success offensively because he's been working so hard at it. His hard work paid off tonight.

Q. Obviously a big night for Jamal. Some of the other parts of his game, how he was hitting Nikola on pocket passes, specifically passing, how big of an improvement have you seen over the last year?

MICHAEL MALONE: I think he’s really improved. When you look at these three series we've played so far, he's starting to get the respect from the other teams. They're game planning him, blitzing him, double-teaming him, giving him so many different looks. That's part of what being an All-NBA type of player is about.

When you do that, you have to be a willing passer. He gets 12 assists tonight, four turnovers. Obviously as a team we were up big in that fourth quarter. We allowed them to make it a game. They went to their zone, turned up the pressure. I believe we had nine turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, which can't happen. We settled down, Jamal made some big baskets down the stretch.

I would say Jamal is a complete basketball player. He's not just a scorer. He's a play-maker, can rebound for his position. These 16, 17 Playoff games have been the best stretch of defense I've ever seen him play.

Q. Concerning their fourth quarter comeback, does it help that you in any way that you've been in their shoes, into that mindset, so you know what you're playing against?

MICHAEL MALONE: The clock starts moving really slow, especially when you have LeBron putting his head down and driving, Anthony Davis out there. But we know there's a lot of time left. No lead is safe, especially against a team like that.

I'm not sure what they cut it to, whether it's one or three, but it got to be really close. That's when I was proud that we gave up our lead, but we didn't collapse. We withstood their run, their punch. We had the poise to get ourselves out of it. That's the sign of a team that's been in a lot of close games and has won a lot of close games in the last three, four years.

Q. You lost a really tough one in Game 2. They close it to 99-96 here. What gave you the belief this time your guys would close it out?

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, I think for me what gave me the belief is that we've been one of the best closing teams and clutch teams in the last few years, led by Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. Then you had Jerami Grant making the plays he was making. We believe.

This is to me kind of similar to the last series. Game 1 the Clippers blew us out. Game 2 we win. Game 3, we felt we gave that game away against the Clippers.

They blew us out in Game 1. Game 2 we gave away at the end. We had to right that wrong and try to get a game under our belt, which we did tonight. This gives us that much more confidence going into this series letting them know that we're here, we're in this for the long haul. We're going to continue to fight and do whatever we can.

Q. Jamal Murray's growth between last year's Playoffs and this year's Playoffs is pretty exceptional. What would you say has gone into that?

MICHAEL MALONE: It's funny, Jamal and I have so many conversations, one-on-one conversations. Tremendous relationship with him which I really value. He came to me last year, kind of after the Playoffs, he says, Coach, you know what drives me crazy and I hate? You say I'm inconsistent. What bothers me is that you're right. I know I have to be more consistent.

I think he's made it a personal challenge because good players are inconsistent, they can get 31 a night, the next night eight. Great players bring it every night.

I think what I've seen from Jamal this year, aside from the growth defensively, which has been tremendous, I'm so proud of him in that regard, but now I know every night what I'm getting from Jamal. Last year we knew what we were getting from Nikola, but what kind of game would Jamal have. That's no longer the case. We have two superstars in Nikola and Jamal and a lot of young, talented players behind them.

I think the difference from last year to this year is just that consistency, the confidence that we all have in Jamal.

Q. We see you two nights ago with that gut punch. Did you like what you saw from the guys yesterday, and how did you get back into a good space mentally?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, I had no doubt that we were going to show up tonight. The reason I didn't have any doubt is because we won six straight elimination games. Everybody always has us packing our bags and leaving, but we're not ready to go. For some reason we love this bubble. I can't explain that, but this team loves the bubble (laughing).

Yesterday when we met and we watched the film, I started off by watching the last play of the game. Get the elephant in the room out of the way. Let's talk about the play, what happened. When we're in this situation again, let's learn from it. Yes, we all take ownership. Let's learn from it.

After that, my goal was when we got done with that film, they saw so many positive clips of us doing the right things, which put us in a position to win. Now we had to do that for more than just a second half. We had to do it for four quarters.

Tonight we did it at a high level for three. The fourth quarter we'll work on our zone offense tomorrow and taking care of the basketball.

But very resilient group. I think this group has proven that time and time again.

Q. You went to a lineup with Jerami Grant at the five, PJ Dozier, things that you haven't used a lot. What made you go with Grant at the five? How important is it for you to keep trying new things even in the Western Conference Finals?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, I think that's what coaching is. You go into games with a certain mindset that this is my rotation, this is who I'm playing. Each game takes on its own personality.

Jerami Grant was having a great game. I like him guarding Anthony Davis, guarding LeBron James.

Last year in OKC, Jerami Grant was a power forward and a backup center. He's shown his versatility, what he can do. That group was playing really well. I stayed with it to start the fourth quarter because there was no reason to go away from it.

As a coach, you want to put the five guys on the floor that are going to give you the best chance to win. That might be a different player or group every single night.

I trust all of our players, from PJ, obviously Jerami as a five. We're going to do whatever it takes to try to win these games.