Wind: Michael Malone's latest postgame one-liner is all about sending a message

Michael Malone was spitting hot fire following the Nuggets’ fourth-straight win, a 117-85 trouncing of LeBron James and the Lakers.

For years, Laker fans invaded Pepsi Center in their purple and gold. Celtics and Warriors faithful did the same. At times over Malone’s first three years on the job, they turned the Nuggets’ home court into a road game. Denver’s coach was asked if he thought he might have converted some of the loyal L.A. transplants this time around.

“We don’t want any converts. You’re either with us or against us,” Malone said. “We understand LeBron is arguably the best player ever. When he comes to town and the Lakers, their fans carry. But as long as their fans go home disappointed that’s all I care about.”

“The Warriors fans can come in here. The Celtic fans can come in here. The Lakers fans can come in here. But take that ‘L’ on the way out.

Holy cow.

It’s not the first time Denver’s coach has set the internet aflame with a memorable one-liner. At the tail end of Nikola Jokic’s rookie season, Malone said he wouldn’t trade the big man for anyone in the league. Following Jokic’s record triple-double last February, Malone compared his big man’s greatness to LeBron James, whom he coached for five seasons in Cleveland. Six days later, Malone trumped for Jokic to be in consideration for the league’s Most Valuable Player award. Last week, Malone told me to put a certain stat in my metaphorical pipe and smoke it.

But this sound bite carried a deeper meaning.

Remember three weeks ago when 21-year-old Jamal Murray angered an entire Celtics locker room by harmlessly gunning for 50 points in a 115-107 win as the clock wound to zero? Remember Kyrie Irving tossing the game ball into the stands so Murray couldn’t have the souvenir from his career night? (Murray got that ball back by the way courtesy of a young Nuggets fan who caught it.) Or when Jaylen Brown called Murray’s act “disrespectful” and how Marcus Morris said that if he was out on the floor at the end of the game he would have confronted Denver’s starting point guard?

Murray’s shot wasn’t just a final chance to join the 50-point club. Like Malone’s Tuesday night edict after the Nuggets’ 32-point win over the Lakers, whose supporters in the crowd came close to outnumbering Denver’s home fans, it was a clear message to his players and the rest of the league.

The Nuggets are becoming a nuisance to the rest of the league. Denver is the Western Conference’s disruptor looking to shake up a league that has enjoyed law and order for the past few seasons. Golden State and Houston have lived at the top. San Antonio, Utah, Oklahoma City and Portland have been playoff mainstays. But after the Warriors, the West is wide open this year, and Malone wants the rest of the league to know the Nuggets belong.

The Nuggets are legit and they’ve become an irritant to the NBA’s elite class, like the Warriors, Celtics and now the Lakers, all of whom Denver has already beaten this year. The Nuggets are the new kid on the block, and they want some damn recognition.

It might be a bit bold for a team that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs in five seasons. Or one that entered the year with the second-youngest roster in the league and Paul Millsap as its only player over 30. The Nuggets haven’t won or achieved anything yet. Denver will still likely have to navigate more injuries down the road and find a second wind in the dog days or January and February.

But the defense Denver is playing should help carry it past those roadblocks.

The Nuggets no longer have to win with their offense. Denver shot back up to the third-best defense in the league through 21 games following its latest victory. The Nuggets are allowing 103.2 points per 100 possessions, 6.5 points less than a season ago. It’s an unprecedented turnaround for a team that returned 78 percent of its minutes from last season’s defense that rarely showed up. Denver has the third-best Net Rating in the league, the best point differential in the conference and third-best in the entire league.

Twenty-one games is enough of a sample size to tell that this defense ain’t no joke.

“We’re a defensive team,” said Paul Millsap who made waves at training camp when he hinted at a personal goal of leading Denver to a top-five defense. “We came into the year with a goal, and we’re not going to stop until we reach that goal.”

For a defensive coach like Malone, who cut his teeth as an assistant helping design the blueprints for successful defenses in Cleveland, New Orleans and Golden State, the Nuggets’ poor play on that end of the floor in the past was a dark cloud hanging over his resume. After having to publicly answer questions about his job status following a disappointing end to last year, Malone should be in consideration on every Coach of the Year ballot at the quarter pole of the regular season for Denver’s 14-7 mark and stingy defense.

“Let’s be honest. Our first three years, to be in the bottom five in defense every year, for me it’s embarrassing,” said Malone. “When you’re known as a defensive coach, and three years running you’re bottom five. I have pride. We all have pride. That was bothering me. It bothered our staff. It bothered our players. So what are you going to do about it?”

How about holding your 10th opponent of the season under 100 points, something Denver did again Tuesday night and has done more than any other team in the league this season? Or getting your franchise center, who quite frankly wasn’t too keen on playing defense during his first three professional seasons, to buy in on that side of the ball and look like a completely different (and quicker) defender?

What about getting Monte Morris, who tips the scales at just 175 pounds, making him among the 10 lightest players in the league, to come over from the weak side Tuesday night and take a Brandon Ingram charge straight to the chest? Or convincing Malik Beasley, who came into the NBA with a score-first mentality, that if he dedicated himself to the defensive end of the floor, his offense will come? Beasley recorded two steals and scored a career-high 20 points against the Lakers.

The Nuggets are winning games the way Malone imagined they would when he took the job in 2015. Now Denver just wants the rest of their league to put some respect on their name.