Nuggets coach Michael Malone has a message for Celtics fans: ‘Take that L on the way out’
"You have to give the Celtics’ fans credit, they always come out strong. But you know what we say, right? ‘They can take that L on the way out, baby.'"
There was plenty of hype coming into Thursday’s Celtics-Nuggets matchup, with some calling it a potential NBA Finals preview.
The defending champion Nuggets prevailed over the Celtics 115-109 in Denver. While the result didn’t go Celtics fans’ way, the game lived up to the hype according to Nuggets coach Michael Malone.
“Oh yeah. It was another playoff atmosphere for sure,” Malone said, per video posted on YouTube by the Nuggets. “As we talked pregame, you have to give the Celtics’ fans credit, they always come out strong. But you know what we say, right? ‘They can take that L on the way out, baby.’”
Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said the road support from Celtics fans made him feel like he was at TD Garden.
“That was great, that was beautiful,” he said. “Always when we travel, we get the support. It felt like a home game. When we started coming back, we heard them. That helped us get back into the game, so shout out to all the Celtics fans.”
The Celtics still have a comfortable 7.5-game lead over Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference standings. Thursday marked the first time the Celtics have lost back-to-back games since November.
The Nuggets have won seven of their last eight games. Malone said he was pleased with the way Denver rebounded from its Tuesday night loss to Phoenix.
“The thing I’m most proud about, for real though, is how we responded to that loss against Phoenix,” Malone said. “We had a run in that second quarter, 23-1 run, and we just didn’t play our brand of basketball.”
“And I just felt tonight, to get that win against that team, to do it playing the defense that we did, is really fun to watch,” he added. “Very elite three-point shooting in two matchups against them, our guys have been phenomenal in terms of discipline, in terms of multiple effort. They go 11 of 38 for only 29 percent.”
As the Nuggets navigate the closing stretch of the regular season, Malone stressed the importance of his team bringing consistent effort every game.
“That’s a really good team over there,” he said. “We’ve got 19 to go. As I told our players, we have to find a way to stay hungry. You can’t just get up for the great teams. We have to get up for everybody and play that brand of basketball every single night.”
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