SAN DIEGO — The chatter in El Segundo this week evidently hasn’t traveled down Interstate 5 to Michael Malone’s ears in San Diego.
The ninth-year Nuggets coach claimed Wednesday he was unaware that the Lakers, practicing two hours north, have been identifying unspecified trash talk from Denver as bulletin board material for the coming season. Malone also said he doesn’t think the recent talk make Nuggets vs. Lakers a rivalry at this point.
“There was just so much of that (trash talk) going on, it was like, ‘All right, we get it, y’all won,’” Lakers center Anthony Davis told Spectrum SportsNet this week. “But me and (LeBron James) had some conversations like, ‘We can’t wait (to play the Nuggets).’”
Denver hosts the Lakers on Oct. 24 to tip off the 2023-24 season. It will be championship banner and ring night at Ball Arena, as well as the first matchup between the Nuggets and Lakers since the Western Conference Finals, which Denver swept.
“Oh, they’re talking about us?” Malone said when asked about the comments in Los Angeles. “Yeah, that was, like, four months ago? Yeah. I can’t speak for anybody in L.A. I can speak for the 17 players on our team, 18 players now. If they’re still worried about us, that’s on them.”
On “The Pat McAfee Show” this summer, Malone said tongue-in-cheek that he was pondering retirement, seemingly mocking James’ similar comments to ESPN after the Nuggets completed their sweep in Game 4. Throughout the playoff run, Malone and the Nuggets expressed frustration with the lack of national media coverage directed toward the top seed in the West relative to larger-market teams, such as the Lakers. James’ comment about considering retirement was perceived in Denver as having stolen more headlines from the Nuggets’ moment of glory.
“This is a new season, new challenge, and it was a hell of a series against them,” Malone said Wednesday. “I know it was a 4-0 sweep, but all the games seemed like they went down to the wire. And as I said after that Game 4, we have tremendous respect for that team. I have tremendous respect for Darvin Ham as a coach, and the job that he did. But yeah, I don’t listen to any of that stuff. I don’t know what they’re saying, and if we’re on their minds, then I guess that’s on them.”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves also took exception to unspecified trash talk from the Nuggets.
“I think everybody knows it was pointed at us,” he told reporters Tuesday. “They can do it indirectly if they want, but I think it was very obvious to the public eye. That’s why everybody was talking about it.”
The most obvious example of heckling from anyone associated with the Nuggets throughout the offseason occurred during the team’s championship parade, when Altitude broadcaster Vic Lombardi introduced Malone as “the Lakers’ daddy.” However, there is no record of any Nuggets players publicly making ill comments toward the Lakers.
The franchises have now met twice in the last four years in the Western Conference Finals, with Los Angeles going on to win the NBA title in the 2020 bubble. When asked if he welcomes the matchup feeling more like a rivalry in light of the Lakers’ comments, Malone shut down such terminology.
“It’s not a rivalry,” he said. “You can’t play a team in the Western Conference Finals twice in the last couple years and think it’s a rivalry. When I think of rivalries, I think of Boston-L.A. I think of the Knicks and the Miami Heat back in the day. But no, I don’t welcome it or not welcome it. I’m on 2023-24. I’m not living four months ago.”
Porter sustains ankle injury
Michael Porter Jr. sustained an ankle injury Wednesday during the Nuggets’ second practice of training camp and wore a walking boot at the end of practice, but Malone said “I don’t think it’s that serious.” He described the injury as just a tweak.
Murray not bothered by target on back
Speaking of the Nuggets becoming a talking point at other training camps: As much as the typical “target-on-their-back” narrative has been brought up already to Denver’s players, Jamal Murray says he isn’t thinking about the change from being the “hunters” to the “hunted” this season. Nor is he mentally preparing for every team to want to beat the Nuggets a little extra.
“I’m always trying to find something to motivate me,” the point guard said. “We’re going in to win. That’s the mindset. So we’re not going in to go be hunted. We’re going in to win every game.”
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