Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said his team is unfocused after Denver's 145-118 loss to the Knicks on its home floor on Monday.
Murray seemed to hint in his postgame press conference after Saturday's 127-102 win over the Lakers that some players were having too much fun in Los Angeles.
“It's a long season. Players have lives outside of basketball.” Murray said. “We just beat LA in LA. We had some guys who lived in LA, so we stayed in LA. Like I said, I don't think everyone had the focus. That's what happens when you don't concentrate.
“Like I said, it's not on the coaches, it's not on the plays that we're running, it's not on anyone other than the players on the court. So going back and looking. That's hard to even accept, of course. But without the whole team bringing that kind of energy at the start of the game and the continued response, we expected it to happen on the other side. I've been on the wrong side before, but tonight I was on the wrong side.''
Murray later recanted his statement about “some guys” and said he remained in Los Angeles with the team.
“By the way, we all stayed in LA! And we had a great win.” Murray wrote “I'm no exception, but I didn't play with you tonight.”
Prior to that, the All-Star guard had not posted for the X since August.
Nuggets coach Mike Malone dropped an F-bomb and slammed a table in his postgame press conference, saying the team was embarrassed by the Knicks.
“No, that’s it.” malone said When asked if Denver would “flush” that game and move on. “We don't flush. We don't blush when we're embarrassed, we don't blush when we give up 145 points, we don't blush when we don't play hard, we don't blush when we don't play with effort. I don't blush. I'm not flushing anything.”
There was no stopping the Knicks offense, which shot 60.9 percent from the floor.
Knicks forward OG Anunoby scored a career-high 40 points, and All-Star guard Jalen Brunson added 23 points with a career-high 17 assists.
Brunson turned on his heater in the first quarter, scoring nine straight points for New York.
The Nuggets fell to 5-4 at home this season.
Denver plays the Jazz in Utah on Wednesday.
