Recap: Denver Nuggets perform terrible, lose 119-109 to San Antonio Spurs

The Denver Nuggets faced the San Antonio Spurs to close their five-game road trip and were hoping to finish a perfect 5-0 on their trips. The Spurs had other ideas. In what has been one of the most painful games to watch in recent memory, DeMar Derozan led San Antonio to victory and spoiled another superb performance from Nikola Jokic. Jamal Murray and DeJounte Murray played their roles as Robins on their respective teams, but for Denver there wasn’t much else to say, at least on the positive side. Nuggets’ winning streak ends at five as they fall to San Antonio 119-109

The Nuggets quickly took the lead behind Will Barton and Gary Harris, Barton headed for the basket with authority while Harris was a vintage Harris, knocking down three times and cutting to the rim. Dejounte had the answer for Spurs and kept things close. Keldon Johnson kept the momentum going for the Spurs who took the lead midway through the quarter. Jamal started to get aggressive after that to quickly regain the advantage for Denver. It was a bit of a three fest with the end of the term. Each team knocked them down and swapped heads back and forth. The Nuggets turned cold to close the quarterback as Spurs were still red from three. They took a seven point lead after one.

The Spurs bench maintained the pressure to open the second quarter. Michael Porter Jr was but Denver was not looking his way on offense and he was struggling in defense. Eventually they started handing the ball over to him and to no one’s surprise he immediately buried two threes and drove Denver back at five. Jokic returned but play was sloppy and Spurs’ lead increased again, prompting Malone to reinsert the rest of the starters. That hasn’t changed much in terms of negligence, the Nuggets just couldn’t stop fouling up. You could also tell that Jokic was tired, all three of them grabbed the iron before. Fortunately, San Antonio finally got cold, so the lead was reduced despite Denver’s not very good play. At the end of the half, Denver lost 61-55.

DeRozan and Jokic fought to open the second half as Spurs continued to increase their lead. Jokic took control after a time out and started a 9-0 run to come back in under two. San Antonio responded, finally starting to understand Denver’s zonal defense, and narrowed the lead to five to force Michael Malone to another time out. Denver regrouped and moved closer, but they just didn’t seem to be able to regain the lead. Probably because Murray and Porter kind of got into a chuck party for a while. It didn’t hurt with the freezing cold San Antonio on the pitch. Finally, Harris knocked down a three to tie the game at 81 with two minutes remaining. He went back and forth on the stretch with hot red DeRozan. The Spurs clung to a one point lead in the final frame.

The fourth quarter started the same way the game had gone so far: essentially an insult to basketball from both sides by both teams. San Antonio stayed ahead but Jokic kept Denver with his score. Once again the Nuggets played terrible basketball and once again the Spurs increased their lead behind a 7-0 run and gave Malone a time out. Meanwhile, you could see Jamal trying to keep his hip loose after taking a hard fall a little earlier. Jokic hit a three but you could tell the nuggets were fading. San Antonio went on another run to push the lead to eleven with five minutes remaining. Denver inexplicably decided to put Barton on four and although it was horrible, Malone stuck with him the entire length. That was all Spurs needed to put the nails in the coffin. They end up winning. The nuggets lose 109 to 119.

Three things I noticed

Best match: Murray vs Murray

Photos by Logan Riely / NBAE via Getty Images

The Murrays put on a good game tonight. DeJounte had a full game, which caused problems for the Nuggets on both sides. He finished with twenty-six points and harassed the Nuggets relentlessly in defense. Meanwhile, Jamal got off to a good start, then cooled off, but still ended up with twenty points, seven assists and six rebounds. Hopefully Jamal’s hip doesn’t bother him too much in the coming week. He was able to come back to the game, but after the spill it won’t be surprising that he is quite steep in the morning.

Main point: LAID, Denver has no alibi

By far the worst performance of the Nuggets season. They were sloppy, they looked tired and they gave up in the end … including Malone. His rotations were appalling tonight. He tried to dictate size in the first half by playing Isaiah Hartenstein alongside JaMychal Green and Porter, which essentially left MPJ covering Murray on the other end (you can guess how it turned out). Then he let the Spurs dictate a small ball in the fourth and went with Barton at the forefront to close the game. You could also wave the white flag. The only good idea Malone had in the fourth was to intentionally foul Jakob Poetl, but he waited too late to do so, so they only had one trip from Jakob to the free throw line. He missed both, but you’re never going to believe it, Barton playing Denver Fours could not secure the rebound. Just a terrible top-to-bottom performance outside of Jokic and Murray. Oh, and Porter only shot the ball five times, #Awesome.

Final thought: rinse it

Once again I lost track of time and didn’t have my pick for Plea’s Picks tonight, but Spurs and above were about as easy of a call as they get. The Nuggets are clearly content with a 4-1 road trip and had no interest in playing defense tonight. This loss you could see coming from a mile away It was a terrible game in every way and I don’t think there is much to learn from it other than not being complacent and never playing again Barton at the forefront.