SAN ANTONIO — To hold serve at the top of the Western Conference standings, the Nuggets had to weather one last Wemby storm.
They couldn’t.
In what might have been the last game of Victor Wembanyama’s Rookie of the Year-destined season, the Nuggets kept him flustered for one half before he started flaming the other. Denver couldn’t survive the surge, losing their seeding on a Devonte’ Graham transition floater with 0.9 seconds remaining for a 121-120 defeat Friday night at Frost Bank Center. It was Denver’s only deficit of the second half, right after Nikola Jokic missed a foul line jumper.
The Nuggets (56-25) could end up in first, second or third place depending on the results Sunday in the regular season finales. They play at Memphis.
To get to that point, a 23-point lead in the third quarter had to be sliced to six, setting up a frantic fourth in which the clutch Nuggets finally wilted. It was 81-60 with 8:16 remaining in the third frame. Then Wembanyama buried a pull-up three. During a 26-9 Spurs run over four minutes and change, he scored 17 of 19 San Antonio points, including a trio of consecutive 3-pointers. The third was enough to finally warrant an aggravated Michael Malone timeout. Reggie Jackson entered and turned it over on an eight-second violation.
Malone would take one more rage timeout in the quarter. The Nuggets responded to that one better, scoring the last six of the period including a Christian Braun 3-pointer and a Justin Holiday reverse layup.
Role players were mostly solid in Nikola Jokic’s rest minutes. But Jamal Murray was Denver’s most consistent source of offense throughout the game, scoring 35 on 5 of 11 shooting beyond the arc.
Before the opening tip, Malone made an astute point about facing the lowly Spurs right after surviving Minnesota on Wednesday for arguably the defining win of Denver’s regular season. “Do you kind of let go of the rope a little bit and say, ‘OK, San Antonio’s got eight guys out with injuries?'” he pondered. “Well, they have one guy playing.”
It went without saying which player Malone was referring to. It wasn’t Sandro Mamukelashvili, whose nine first-quarter points gave San Antonio the edge despite 14 from Jokic on perfect shooting. In a classic Jokic half, he didn’t attempt a shot in the entire second quarter, which the Nuggets won by 19. They thrived by bottling up Wembanyama, who went into the break with 15 points on 14 shots, four turnovers and his first career yapping-related technical foul.
Aaron Gordon defended him well and built up frustration. Before a Spurs baseline out-of-bounds play, the two got tangled up and Wembanyama fell. With Gordon standing over him, no foul was caused. Gordon absorbed a Wembanyama push-off in the post after the ensuing inbound and the possession ended in a turnover. By the end of the half, the rookie was visibly riled up, due for a big half.
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