Kevin Garnett: Nuggets 'quit' on former coach Brian Shaw

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett says he believes that the Denver Nuggets quit on former coach Brian Shaw.

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett says he believes that the Denver Nuggets quit on former coach Brian Shaw. 

The Nuggets fired Shaw on Tuesday after he went 56-85 in less than two seasons with the team.

Denver has won two games in a row since assistant Melvin Hunt took over as the team's interim coach, including a 100-85 victory over Minnesota on Wednesday. The Nuggets won only one game in the entire month of February. Minnesota entered Wednesday's game with the worst record in the Western Conference, and with the victory the Nuggets are now 12th in the West.

Garnett was asked if he expected to see the Nuggets come out with energy after Shaw’s ouster. 

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“To be honest, they quit on Brian Shaw. They’ll quit again,” Garnett said, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “A quitter is a quitter. That was my take on that. If you have any kind of self-pride about your future then you want to anticipate someone playing hard.” 

Garnett, who had 11 points and six rebounds against Denver, said he wasn’t worried about how the Nuggets would come out to play against Minnesota but was more concerned about how his teammates would respond. 

“It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not going to happen when someone wakes up and all of a sudden, voilà, a real light comes through the window. … No excuses,” Garnett told the Star-Tribune. “We’ve got to come out and play with better energy and give our fans something to cheer about.”

- Scooby Axson