Jamal Murray says staying in LA was reason Nuggets embarrassed by Knicks

Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said his team wasn’t focused after Denver got blown out on their home floor by the Knicks, 145-118, on Monday.During his postgame press conference, Murray seemed to hint that some players had too much fun in Los Angeles after a 127-102 win over the Lakers on Saturday.“It’s a long season.

Guys have lives outside of basketball,” Murray said.“We just beat LA in LA.

We’ve got some guys who live in LA, so stayed in LA.Like I said, I don’t think the focus was there from everybody, and that’s what happens when you don’t have the focus.

“Like I said, it’s not on coach, it’s not on what plays we’re running, it’s not on anybody else but the guys that are out there on the court.So, 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 that whole team is going to bring to start the game and continuously not have a response, then that’s what happens.We’ve been on the other side of it.

I’ve been on the other side of it and tonight we were on the wrong end of it.” Murray later walked back the part about “some guys,” and said he also stayed in Los Angeles with the team.“We all stayed in LA BTW! and had a great win,” Murray wrote on X.

“Not excluding myself guys we didn’t play together tonight.” Before that, the All-Star guard hadn’t posted on X since August.Nuggets coach Mike Malone, who dropped an F-bomb and pounded the table in his postgame press conference, said his team got embarrassed by the Knicks.“Nah, f–k that,” Malone said when asked if Denver would “flush” that game and move on.

“We’re not flushing.You don’t flush when you get embarrassed, you don’t flush when you gave up 145 points, you don’t flush when you didn’t play hard, when you didn’t play with effort when you didn’t play with physicality.

I’m not flushing anything.” There was no stopping the Knicks’ offense, which shot 60.9 percent from the...