The more points the Nuggets give up, the redder Michael Malone tends to get. So it’s no wonder he was running an emotional fever after the highest-scoring regulation game by any Nuggets opponent in his 10-year coaching tenure. “(Screw) that. We’re not flushing,” he said Monday after seating himself for a fiery postgame news conference. “You don’t flush when you get embarrassed. You don’t flush when you gave up 145 points.” This was the precise type of loss Malone detests most. Denver’s aesthetically ugly 102-87 dud against Oklahoma City on opening night? No need to panic, the 53-year-old coach insisted, calm in his diagnosis of the team’s inefficiency. How about a 135-122 victory over Miami in early November, extending a win streak to four? “Right now we’re winning with our offense,” he said that night, and he didn’t mean it as a compliment. With a 145-118 loss to the Knicks, the Nuggets (9-7) fell to 5-4 at Ball Arena this season and 6-7 in their last 13 home games, dating back to their second-round playoff series against Minnesota. During their championship season in 2022-23 — playoffs included — they lost eight total home games. “Sixteen games in, and we’re talking about effort,” Malone said as the Knicks could be heard celebrating on the other side of the wall behind him in the visitors’ locker room. “We’re talking about toughness. We’re talking about physicality. … Regardless of who’s in, who’s out, who do we want to be as a team? So, yeah. Leadership would be great. Toughness would be great. Physicality would be great. Playing like you actually care would be great. We didn’t do that tonight.” Malone called out the starting lineup specifically, imploring Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray to be vocal leaders while reiterating that his team got “embarrassed” by the Knicks. He called out the Nuggets’ transition defense, referring to them as a “one-way running team.” He called out the collective effort. “We’re just fooling ourselves,” Malone said. “Just fooling ourselves. Yes, they’re a good team. But if that’s the effort we’re going to give forth, we won’t even be close to being a playoff team.” “We didn’t show up tonight,” Jokic acknowledged. After 16 games, Denver ranks eighth in offense, 17th in defense and 13th in net rating — but 29th in first-half net rating. The loss to New York dropped the Nuggets into a tie with Phoenix for seventh place in the Western Conference, which has been hotly contested. Murray felt the Knicks played like a team coming off a loss — they fell 121-106 to Utah on Saturday — while the Nuggets didn’t play hard enough on the heels of a win over the Lakers, also on Saturday, that vaulted Malone into sole position as the winningest coach in franchise history. Related Articles Denver Nuggets | Nuggets blown out by Knicks, OG Anunoby after another shoddy first half at Ball Arena Denver Nuggets | Exclusive excerpt from “Why So Serious? The Untold Story of NBA Champion Nikola Jokic”: How team of advisors steered Nuggets star from the stables to the basketball court Denver Nuggets | Jay Huff almost played in Italy before becoming Grizzlies success story — and he has no hard feelings toward Nuggets Denver Nuggets | Michael Malone breaks wins record for Nuggets coach as Denver continues dominance over Lakers Denver Nuggets | Keeler: Nuggets’ Jamal Murray wouldn’t hurt a fly. But he’s hurting Nikola Jokic’s NBA championship window “I just think it’s a long season,” Murray said. “Guys have lives outside of basketball. We just beat L.A. in L.A. We’ve got some guys that live in L.A. so stayed in L.A. … I don’t think the focus was there. From everybody. And that’s what happens when you don’t have the focus. It’s not on coach. It’s not on, ‘What plays are we running?’ It’s not on anybody else but the guys that are out there on the court. It’s a tough one to go back and watch, or even accept. But it was expected, if that’s the kind of energy that the whole team is gonna bring to start the game.” Malone and players have pointed to poor effort and energy after other losses early this season, including a 105-90 defeat in Memphis on Nov. 17. That was during Jokic’s three-game hiatus to be with his family for the birth of his newborn son. After his first game back, a 123-120 loss to the Mavericks last Friday, Malone once again questioned players’ effort, saying that Denver “expected superman to carry the day, and that’s not fair. Do your own job.” Jokic is averaging a 30-point triple-double this season. “It’s always good to get punched in the face,” he said, “just to wake up.”