The Denver Nuggets suffered a blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday at home, 98-79, and Brian Shaw was highly disappointed in the defeat.

“Tonight was inexcusable,” Shaw said. “There is no other way around it.”

“Very surprised,” Shaw added of the Nuggets' effort. “One of the advantages of teams having to travel here, especially on the second night of a back-to-back – they get in late, the altitude. We’re at home. We didn’t give the crowd any reason to give us energy because they are not going to cheer for us if we’re going tout there with a lackluster performance. You’ve got to show that you’ve got some fight, give the people what they paid money for and we didn’t do that. It was dead all the way around and I was very surprised about that.”

Forward J.J. Hickson agreed the game was a setback.

“It’s the preseason, but I definitely see it as a step back,” Hickson said. “We have to play harder. It’s a long season. You’re going to have games where you take steps back but it’s always how you bounce back. So we’re looking to play way better against Chicago and play better as a team.”