Malone: Nuggets 'played soft' in Game 4 loss to Blazers
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone didn't pull any punches when assessing his team's performance in Saturday's Game 4 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
"Our starters were awful," Malone told ESPN's Royce Young following the 115-95 defeat in Portland.
"I thought we had some guys that were tentative, that looked a little scared, who played soft ... we're going to have to be a lot better going home."
The Blazers starters outscored Malone's starting five 86-45 Saturday, with Nikola Jokic and Co. combining to shoot a dismal 30% from the field.
"Their starters beat us by a lot, and we didn't respond well," MVP favorite Jokic said. "We need to be much better."
The Nuggets were especially poor in the second half as the Blazers scored at will to even the best-of-seven series 2-2.
"The urgency has to be there. Maybe this will be a wake-up call for our starting group just to play harder," Malone said. "Good things happen when we play hard, and we didn't play anywhere close to hard enough tonight."
Portland's core outclassing Denver's starters was even more noteworthy due to Damian Lillard's uncharacteristically poor performance. Lillard made just one field goal in 10 attempts - a step-back three - but hurt the Nuggets in other ways, pairing 10 assists with eight boards.
"If you would've told me going in that Damian Lillard was going to be 1-10 from the field and we're going to get blown out, I probably would've had a hard time believing that," Malone said.
The coach took little solace in successfully executing a strategy that involved stripping Lillard of his powers by smothering the All-Star while in possession.
"There's no silver linings when you get your ass kicked in a playoff game," Malone added. "I can't believe we're actually talking about playing hard in a playoff game. That should be a given."
Malone's key contributors will get a chance to curry favor with their candid bench boss when they host the Blazers in Game 5 Tuesday at the Ball Arena in Denver.