“Guys, we’re the reigning world champions. Act like it and play like it”. Denver Nuggets HC Michael Malone had used his squad’s previous achievement to lay out certain expectations back in May. And with the new season, the expectations still haven’t changed. For the most part, Nikola Jokic and Co. performed well. However, the 9-6 win record was not something that Malone deemed satisfactory. Now, as the record turned 9-7 with them losing to the Knicks, he is not afraid to place the blame on the shoulders of his star players.

During the post-game presser, the Nuggets head coach indicated that Russell Westbrook certainly was “vocal” during the game. However, the 2017 MVP was the secondary point guard for the Nuggets, not the primary. Westbrook performing well mattered a lot, but not if the starters themselves did not choose to perform equally, or go beyond the usual.

“But we need more than Russell Westbrook. I need Nikola Jokic. I need Jamal Murray. I need guys that have been here in that starting lineup to be vocal. And tonight, you know, we got embarrassed. What just happened is, and let’s be honest, it happened tonight for four quarters. It happened in the first half against Dallas. So, 16 games in, and we’re (still) talking about effort.”

“Regardless of who’s in, who’s out, who do we want to be as a team? I mean, so, yeah, leadership would be great, toughness would be great, physicality would be great, playing like you actually care would be great, and uh we, we didn’t do that tonight,” Coach Malone concluded.

Malone’s remarks come after Jokic made 22 points in 32 minutes. This was the lowest score he had recorded in his last 11 games. Meanwhile, Jamal Murray performed relatively better than he did during the last 2 games. Despite this, he still had several missed shots on his record. After all, he made only 6-13 (46.2%) field goals, 1-5 (20%) three-pointers, and 7-9 (77.8%) free throws.

Westbrook was the one who took the scoring lead with his 27 points, made within 26 minutes. If Jokic and Murray would’ve had more success with their efforts, then the 2023 champions may not have lost to the Knicks by a score of 145-118. A 27-point margin!

Nikola Jokic’s role as a leader is more important than ever before, especially after what Malone said in the aftermath of the Nuggets’ loss to the Mavericks. Highlighting how the other players “exhaled cause Nikola’s back” Malone asked them to not have “Superman” carrying the day mindset and to make their own efforts too. Instead of looking at Jokic as a savior, one needs to look at him as a leader. The Serbian may have realized this too. After all, nothing else could have convinced him to be in the apologetic mood after the game.

Nikola Jokic compares the Nuggets-Knicks embarrassment to a punch in the face

Once again, Nikola Jokic arrived at the post-game interview in a downcast mode. The Serbian complimented the other team on their performance and especially praised their shots. At the same time, however, he also highlighted that he and his squad made things easy for their rival. At a time when the win record stands at 9-7, such mistakes should not come up again.

“I think you can always learn from games like this, just what they do, because the teams are looking at us, and what it did to have a game like this,” said Jokic. “I think we can learn (from) it, but it’s always good to get punched in the face, just to wake up.” This will likely be the last punch that Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets might need to wake up. After all, if the championship-caliber franchise takes their seed any lower on the points chart, then it will be really tough for them to bounce back.