Nuggets coach Michael Malone questions roster’s “toughness” after Game 3 disaster

To paraphrase that ancient philosopher Mike Tyson, everybody’s got a plan — until they get punched in the mouth. And right now, the blood’s gushing from the lips of the Denver Nuggets like a chocolate fountain.

“I think we gave in too easy,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, bluntly, after his squad was crushed for the second time in three days by the Utah Jazz on Friday, saddling Denver with a 2-1 deficit in their best-of-seven series. “Our group has to be a lot more mentally tough.”

The third-seeded Nuggets trailed Game 3 by an 11-5 score four minutes in and 20-12 six minutes after that. The Jazz stormed to a 25-14 lead at the end of the first period and kept its feet squarely on Denver’s collective throats for the rest of the afternoon.

“Sometimes, we think we’re good when we’re down 12 (in) the first (quarter),” said guard Jamal Murray, who was largely a non-factor again, misfiring on 6-of-8 3-point attempts and 11-of-16 overall from the floor. “We’ve got to hold ourselves to a higher standard individually, as a squad, and as a three seed.”

Like their collective mentality, the math continues to not add up. Unless you’re trying to piece together a surefire formula for going home from the bubble early.

Once Utah got the Nuggets on the canvas, Murray and company pretty much stayed there. The Jazz had it going everywhere, draining 18-of-37 attempts from beyond the arc (48.7%) and dribble-driving mercilessly to get easy looks underneath, outscoring the Nuggets 48-32 in the paint.

“We talked about, going in, how we have yet to take anything away from them,” Malone said. “You can’t get beat from the 3-point line, you can’t get beat in the paint, and you can’t get beat on the glass. And that’s what’s been happening for three games now, where we’ve been dominated in all three of those areas. So I would say, definitely, it starts there.”

Malone did like one stretch Friday: A run in the final four minutes of the second quarter in which the Nuggets outscored Utah 14-6, trimming the Jazz’s cushion to 17 at the break.

“Obviously, our performance (Friday) was nowhere close to being good enough — from an effort standpoint, from a competition standpoint, from a discipline standpoint,” Malone groused. “We had a stretch, I’d say maybe the last four minutes of the second quarter, where that looked like playoff basketball to me, where guys were actually playing hard, competing every possession. But you can’t do that for four minutes and expect to be in a game.

“They’re playing at a different level than us right now, and we have to somehow find a way to not only match that, but exceed that, going into Game 4 (Sunday).”