The Denver Nuggets entered their Game 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves with the advantages of home-court and more experience in crucial games. However, to everyone’s surprise, these advantages didn’t make a difference.
The Timberwolves pulled off a stunning victory, leading to a less-than-pleased postgame press conference from Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.
Denver led by up to 20 points in the second half. Given that the Nuggets are the defending NBA champions, most would expect them to be unable to give up such a large lead.
But, in the words of the great Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend!” Minnesota was able to shut down defensively, restricting the Nuggets to 37 second-half points and winning 98-90 to advance to the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.
As you might think, Michael Malone, who has given some angry postgame news conferences in the past, was not in the best of spirits.
A reporter queried him about losing the 20-point lead, which exacerbated his feelings. He answered accordingly, throwing an F-bomb in response to the query.
“Next question, man,” said Malone. “The season is over. That’s what’s hard. F*** being up 20. The season’s over. You don’t understand that. The season’s over. It’s hard. Stupid a** questions.”
To be fair to Malone, he does make some valid points. The fact that the Nuggets’ season is now finished is the most difficult thing for him, as it should be.
However, it is difficult to disagree that losing in this manner, when the game appeared to be within their reach, must have stung considerably more.
Regardless, the Nuggets’ season is now over. So at least Michael Malone won’t have to deal with more “stupid a** questions” until the start of the 2024-25 season…
