It’s Mike Malone’s turn to complain about the calendar
Mike Malone could be proud of his troops on Wednesday night after his team’s narrow defeat in Milwaukee (107-99). After the game the previous day, won by the wire in New Orleans (98-99), the Nuggets had to be without four holders (Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr and Nikola Jokic) to challenge the Bucks and their Middleton / Antetokounmpo tandem in the second night of a “back-to-back” outside.
Five minutes from the end, Denver was still in the game, five lengths from Milwaukee, a mini-feat considering the busy schedule his reduced group was consuming.
“Overall, back-to-back, even if you play in your own room like we did a few times, it’s tough. Because you are playing two games in a very short time”he remembered first. “When you put the trip from New Orleans to Milwaukee at the end, which is a long flight, when the first game is intense with players who have played a lot, and you arrive at the hotel at a very late time at night or in the early day, it was a real challenge. We’re not the only team to go through this kind of thing, every team has to deal with it. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but I saw some really good things from my group that will help us move forward”.
It’s impossible to please everyone
The Nuggets’ “hell” week isn’t over yet, however, as Nikola Jokic’s teammates must challenge Philadelphia on Saturday! Asked about this high-flying sequence, Mike Malone lamented the fact that the calendar cannot be fair, if only for the number of “back-to-backs” played, which are not the same for each team (between 12 and 15). this season).
“For every question regarding the schedule, I would say that I still hate our schedule. Every year when he comes out, I hate him, and so do the other 29 coaches. They will look at it and say: ‘There are personal biases, we are not respected’. But the work of the league is (on this subject) impossible. We’re not going to have 30 teams that are going to be happy with their schedule.he added.
Mike Malone admitted that the NBA did, however, do what was necessary to maintain fairness between Denver and Philadelphia. He just wishes the matchup in Milwaukee would get a similar treatment.
“Philly also played this (Wednesday) night. They don’t play until Saturday. And it is the same for us. We can tell they prepared this game for the Nikola Jokic vs Joel Embiid showdown on ABC. So these players are probably available”he continued. “In the last five years, Milwaukee has won the most games. We have the most games in the Western Conference. Giannis is a double MVP, so is Nikola. Coming up, we have this game on the second night of a “back -to-back”, it’s not on national TV and a lot of our players don’t get to play… I hope the NBA highlights it. game yet. But again, it’s easy for us to say. Whoever did this in the NBA, no matter what computer program they use, it’s a really thankless job because no one will be happy with it.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | p.d | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Nikola Jokic | 42 | 33.4 | 62.9 | 37.8 | 81.8 | 2.1 | 8.9 | 11.0 | 9.9 | 3.4 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 25.1 |
| Jamal Murray | 41 | 32.3 | 45.3 | 38.5 | 82.6 | 0.8 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 5.7 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 19.1 |
| Aaron Gordon | 44 | 30.1 | 57.4 | 39.3 | 62.6 | 2.5 | 4.4 | 6.9 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 16.8 |
| Michael Porter, Jr. | 32 | 28.9 | 47.6 | 40.4 | 77.0 | 1.0 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 16.2 |
| Bones Hyland | 40 | 19.9 | 40.0 | 38.5 | 85.9 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 3.1 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 12.4 |
| Kentavious Caldwell-Pope | 47 | 31.5 | 47.0 | 46.4 | 82.2 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 11.4 |
| Bruce Brown, Jr. | 48 | 29.1 | 49.4 | 39.9 | 71.2 | 0.8 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 3.6 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 11.3 |
| Jeff Green | 28 | 19.5 | 51.3 | 28.6 | 68.3 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 7.7 |
| Zeke Nnaji | 39 | 13.2 | 56.9 | 27.5 | 65.3 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 5.1 |
| Vlatko Cancer | 36 | 14.2 | 49.2 | 45.5 | 94.1 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 4.8 |
| Deandre Jordan | 32 | 14.4 | 77.0 | 100.0 | 44.7 | 1.2 | 3.7 | 4.9 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 4.8 |
| Christian Brown | 45 | 13.7 | 46.5 | 34.0 | 59.3 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 3.6 |
| Ish Smith | 22 | 8.5 | 41.9 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 2.5 |
| davon reed | 31 | 9.0 | 31.9 | 36.6 | 72.2 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 2.3 |
| peyton watson | 6 | 2.5 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| Jack White | 11 | 3.1 | 33.3 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.6 |
