Nuggets making excuses for embarrassing loss to Suns?

The Phoenix Suns had without question their most impressive win of preseason play - if there is such a thing - against the Denver Nuggets recently, as they ran out 118-114 winners away from home. What made this victory worth talking about was the fact the Suns did it without their top six players suiting up for the game.

Devin Booker continuing to air on the side of caution with ankle soreness, while Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Tyus Jones were given the night off. This allowed not only Ryan Dunn to continue to shatter early expectations the franchise had for him, but also for Bol Bol to have a revenge game against the team that drafted him.

And now the Nuggets appear to be making excuses for this result.

Their head coach Mike Malone was speaking to the media after that loss - one in which the Nuggets started and played all of their main guys, unlike the Suns - and seemed to suggest that fitness may have been a reason why they were beaten by the young guns in Phoenix they came up against.

To be fair, Malone is likely trying to light a fire under his guys here by both claiming that the league has gotten so soft (that depends on which generation of ball you grew up watching), and by then going on to say that his group weren't in the best of shape. Could it not just be that the Suns had some players who didn't treat this as a warm-up game, and instead as an opportunity?

That's exactly how Dunn has approached preseason so far - to the point where already fans are having conversations about just how big his role could grow as the season progresses - while Bol also did really well to take his chance. He started the game, played 28 minutes and managed 14 points and eight boards while going 4-of-6 from 3-point range.

Monte Morris also had a team-high seven assists, and did his own stock no harm in leading what was a cobbled together starting five for this game. Many assume Morris will be the backup point guard off the bench - he's not displacing Jones in the starting group - but that may be premature. Head coach Mike Budenholzer also has to find room for Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale.

But to create looks for a rookie in Dunn and a limited player in Bol is a great sign, one that coach Malone over in Denver clearly was not a fan of. It's hard to get up for a meaningless game when you're Nikola Jokic or Aaron Gordon though, they've won a championship and know what it takes to fall into the rhythm of a long season.

We'll chalk this one up to a head coach just trying to get the most out of his players then. But to insinuate that the Nuggets aren't up to regular season conditioning right now - while failing to point out that the Suns fringe players simply wanted this one more - does still feel like he's making excuses for the outcome of the game.