NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 25, 2020

Michael Malone

Denver Nuggets

Practice Day

Q. Does this 3-1 deficit feel any different because of the stage where you guys are at and obviously because of the opponent that you guys are facing?

MICHAEL MALONE: No, not at all. Obviously, we have been here twice and we have answered the call, if you will. To be honest, I think in the second round against the Clippers, the Clippers were the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing, ahead of the Lakers. The Clippers are a great team. The Lakers are a great team. We're down 3-1, again, unfortunately. I think people out there probably think this is exactly where we want them. It's not. We would much rather be up 3-1, but it is what it is. We put ourselves in this position. Our team has shown tremendous resiliency and grit in getting out of these before. I have no doubt that tomorrow night we'll bring that same fight to the game and hopefully we can keep this series alive.

Q. There's been obviously a lot of talk about the fouls and the free throws. But I'm wondering how you talk to your guys about controlling what they can control and making an effort to keep their frustrations or their emotions at bay when they're not getting the calls that they might want to be getting.

MICHAEL MALONE: Fouls are fouls. Obviously, we have sent in some of the clips that we felt were missed last night. We'll leave it at that and wait on the NBA's response.

But the rebounding has nothing to do with that. Dwight Howard dominated in the first quarter -- eight points, eight rebounds, four on the offensive end. They had 25 second-chance points. When the shot goes up, we have to be a lot more physical. We have gotten caught ball watching or we have been engaged, but just not with the requisite amount of energy and fight. There was a stretch, I think late in the game, it was a five-point game three straight possessions. We just needed one stop and we forced the miss, but we were unable to get the rebound. Now they just got an extra possession. LeBron James shot a free throw and missed. He got the rebound himself and put it back in.

So we can get caught up in that and use the refs as an easily, readily available excuse if we want. I'm not going to, because we didn't lose the game last night because of anybody except ourselves.

We did not meet the fight on the glass. And let's go back, going into this series we talked about two things over and over again, I did at least: It was transition defense and rebounding. I think the rebounding has a lot to do with not just last night, but this series overall.

Q. I noticed you're wearing the I Am a Voter T-shirt today. Paul Millsap just announced yesterday that he's making his training facility a place for people to vote in Atlanta. I just want to get your thoughts on what that means to you and why you're wearing that shirt and how important it is for people to register to vote.

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, I have a lot of -- I'm running out of clothes. I've been here for 81 days, so my wardrobe is getting very thin. But on a more serious note, this is a group, the I Am a Voter group, that we have tried to partner with to try to bring the awareness, not just to people in Denver, but I know a lot of NBA teams that joined with I Am a Voter, just to get the word out there and the importance of voting. What Paul Millsap is doing, what a lot of NBA teams are doing, I think is phenomenal. For Paul to make his CORE4 facility in Atlanta available and open for early voting, shows that Paul is invested and he's willing to do whatever it takes from his platform, from his name, from his home, to help that. In talking to a lot of the coaches, obviously, in Colorado I don't think it's a major issue. I'm sure it is -- I'm not an expert on voting by any means. But I know in states like Georgia and states in the Deep South, there is still voter suppression going on. They are still making it very, very hard for people to get out to vote. I think one thing going into this election on November 3rd is trying to make voting as easy as possible for everybody, for people of color and everybody else that's been suppressed for many, many years. So for Paul to take that upon himself is outstanding and just another example of one of our players not just being a basketball player but being involved in their communities as well.

Q. To pick up on that, just how proud are you of your players because of that? And then the basketball question is actually about Jerami Grant and his growth this entire playoffs and how these experiences are going to help him going forward.

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, I'm proud of my group in so many ways, on the court, off the court. I've been in the NBA for 20 years. I've been around this game my whole life, growing up the son of a coach. I fully recognize the special group that we have. For us to be so young and doing what we're doing is incredible. I feel blessed to wake up every day and go to work. In this bubble, kind of wake up in the bubble and stay in the bubble. Just to be able to work with the people I work with, and being around as I have been, I know it's not always the case. So I'll never take that for granted. We have really special young men who are also great husbands, fathers and just role models. They are willing to do whatever it takes to help themselves and use their platform while doing so and help out others, not only in our community of Denver, but obviously all across the country wherever they may be from.

As far as Jerami Grant goes, I look at Jerami and I go back to the day that we got him from Oklahoma City and how truly excited we all were. I remember that like it was yesterday when we got that news in Las Vegas. And the reason for the excitement was exactly what we're seeing: the versatility that Jerami Grant brings on both ends of the floor. I think we have taken it one step further here in Denver. I say that because in Oklahoma City, Jerami was a starting power forward who was Steven Adams' backup. So he played a lot of backup five as well with that group. With us, he's been our starting small forward. He has played backup power forward minutes and a little bit of backup five. Defensively, we've asked him to guard everybody and their brother, and he's done so with tremendous pride and conviction.

Jerami has been phenomenal. What he's given to us on both ends of the floor is obviously much, much needed. We're going to need a lot more of that moving forward as we try to advance to the NBA Finals.

Q. Frank has obviously changed lineups against you and started Dwight yesterday. And I know you have thrown in some new lineups, or I guess some little-used lineups in the past. What sort of prompts those decisions when you're kind of throwing in groups that haven't played a ton before, especially in the playoffs, and how has that affected the series?

MICHAEL MALONE: I can't speak for Frank. I know for myself, whether it was last year in the playoffs when I inserted Torrey Craig into the lineup and took out Will Barton, or this year's playoffs when, after the second or third game against Utah, I took Torrey and Michael out of the lineup and inserted Monte and Jerami. And then going into the second round against the Clippers, I took Monte out and I put Gary Harris in. I know for me as a coach, it's always about what group do I think is going to give us the best chance to have success, whether that's a starting lineup or whether that's using a PJ Dozier, whether that's using a Jerami Grant as our backup five, whether it's playing Nikola and Mason together. You're always kind of asking yourself in the situation, What can we do better? What can we be better at and who can maybe bring us a lift or something different to combat what the other team is doing? Those are kind of some of the thoughts that go into it for me. It's never about the individual. It's never about, Hey, we're losing because Monte or Torrey and Michael Porter. No, it's, I think this lineup may give us a better chance to win. And then you go with it and you make the adjustments from there. But that's how I look at it.

Q. We're some 12 hours after the game. I'm wondering what the turnaround looked like. What was the process in turning around in terms of reviewing, analyzing and maybe giving that assessment to your players in such short time?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, I know for me I'm a night person anyway, so it's a long night. You get back to your room. For me, I call my family. I wished my wife a happy anniversary today. I wished my daughter a happy birthday, which is today. Then you kind of change, get comfortable and I start watching the film and usually wind up going to bed around 3:30, 4:00 in the morning. Then you get up in the morning and then you kind of look back through all your notes, your clips, you make your notes, you meet with your staff, you talk about what they saw, where we can be better and then you address that with your team. You show the clips and you talk about it. There's not a lot you can do physically on a day like this. This has been a grind playing every other day. All of our games seem like they start at 9 o'clock, so you're not getting back to the hotel until midnight. So a lot of this now is just so much more mental. I think there are probably people out there that maybe thought we would wake up today and go to practice and do rebounding drills. And as much as I would love to do that, that's just not realistic. We can show it. We can talk about it. But hopefully by making it a huge point of emphasis we can go out tomorrow night and do a lot better job in that area. But review, reflect, communicate with our guys and then try to turn the page and get ready for Game No. 5.