Nuggets Coach Trolls Large Contingent Of Celtics Fans In Denver

It surprisingly wasn’t a true home-court advantage for the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night against the Boston Celtics at Ball Arena.

Sure, there was the elevation factor at play but there was a large contingent of Celtics fans in the building making plenty of noise for the road team. There were points in the game that “Let’s go, Celtics” chants broke out.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone certainly took notice of the opposing fans’ presence, but had a parting message for them after Denver came away with a 115-109 win over the Celtics in a possible NBA Finals preview.

“You’ve got to give the Celtics fans credit. They always come out strong,” Malone told reporters, per DNVR Sports’ Harrison Wind. “But you know what we say. They can take that ‘L’ on the way out, baby.”

It was the second time this season that the Celtics lost to the Nuggets. The Celtics dropped a 102-100 decision to Denver in Boston back on Jan. 19.

Celtics played energized on the road with the extra fan support, but had too many missteps along the way. Boston turned the ball over 12 times and only hit 16-of-25 (64%) free throws. Jaylen Brown poured in a season-high 42 points, but was a big culprit in the free-throw woes, knocking down just 8-of-15 attempts from the charity stripe.

Brown’s star running mate in Jayson Tatum can’t escape blame, either. He had an uncharacteristic showing scoring 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting and adding eight assists while committing a team-high five turnovers. Tatum had a chance to redeem himself in the final seconds, but missed a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner that would have given the Celtics the lead.

Malone and the Nuggets got the last laugh in the end and Celtics fans in Denver didn’t go home happy. But they may have to come back to Ball Arena in June with the two sides looking poised to meet again in the Finals.