Tempers flared to the point where apologies became required afterward.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone apologized to his team for a dust-up with Clippers forward Blake Griffin, which resulted in a technical foul.

Rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay apologized for getting into a verbal altercation with Malone late in the Nuggets’ 111-94 loss to the L.A. Clippers on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, their fourth straight.

It was a frustrating night for everyone involved.

With 1:53 left in the fourth quarter, Malone laid into Mudiay for what he thought was a subpar performance. A frustrated Mudiay didn’t like the words and had a few of his own for the Nuggets coach.

He was pulled from the game.

Postgame, both downplayed the exchange and insisted everything between them was fine.

“There is frustration on our end, having lost four games in a row now,” Malone said. “Just trying to find way to get a win. Winning is a great cure-all for anybody, like it was for (the Clippers) tonight, coming in having lost three in a row. So this is a very competitive game, guys are out there working hard trying to do their best, and sometimes emotions get involved. By no means is there an issue with Emmanuel or anybody else on this team. We are together, we are unified and we’re going to continue to fight to stay together to get this thing turned around.”

Said Mudiay: “It’s just both of us being competitors. It probably was my fault, I could have been doing a lot more. So I kind of put the blame on myself. I’ve got nothing against Coach, I respect him. He’s a great person, and I have all the respect in the world for him.

“Me and him are both competitive. We want to win. We hate losing. We’re on a four-game losing streak, something like that. It’s just us trying to win. At the same time, it’s over with. It’s on to the next game. It’s been like that my whole life. He’s just trying to challenge me, which I accept.”

Earlier in the quarter, Malone got into it with Griffin over, he said, the Clippers hating the Nuggets using an intentional fouling strategy on DeAndre Jordan, a poor foul shooter.

“They were frustrated with us fouling DeAndre,” Malone said. “And, trust me, I’m not a fan of it. But it’s a rule you can use, and we felt that we had a better chance of fouling him than allowing them to take a shot. So we went to it. I think they were frustrated with that, some words were exchanged and that’s what happened.”

Malone told his team he should not have engaged in that kind of behavior.

“As a head coach, as a leader of this team, I can’t get caught up in that kind of stuff,” he said. “I owed them an apology. Have to set a better example for our team, and we just have to keep on working. Stay together and keep on working, and find a way to stay positive. Hopefully a win will come soon.”

It didn’t on Tuesday night.

Danilo Gallinari led the team with 20 points and a career-high 18 rebounds. He had his 13th career double-double by halftime as the Nuggets worked hard to get him the ball in advantageous spots on the court. He added to that by getting into the lane whenever he could, and hit the glass hard as well.

Nikola Jokic had 16 points and six rebounds. Griffin and Jordan had 18 points apiece for the Clippers.

“We knew they were going to come out with great emotion because they hadn’t won in three games,” Malone said. “When we struggled to make shots … it’s going to be tough to stay with them.”

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost