SPURS POSTCAST: Jokic, Nuggets Reserves Roll Spurs Regulars without Wembanyama in Finale
Casey Viera and NBA champion Devin Brown recap the Spurs’ 128-118 defeat to the hands of Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, dropping the season finale without a resting Victor Wembanyama ahead of the postseason.
Nikola Jokic totaled 23 points in 18 minutes of work in their third-consecutive victory over San Antonio (62-20).
With the 12th-straight win, Denver (54-28) secures the three-seed looming for a potential second-round matchup.
De’Aaron Fox scored 24 points on eight-of-21 shooting while Stephon Castle contributed 10 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.
San Antonio awaits the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between the seventh-seeded Phoenix Suns and eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers.
#Spurs #SanAntonioSpurs #NBA #greggpopovich #spurs #nba #sanantonio #victorwembanyama #wemby #wembanyama #sanantoniospurs #basketball #nba #sports #jeremysochan #keldonjohnson #spursnation #basketballteam #greggpopovich #stephoncastle #deaaronfox
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49 Comments
They could have the easiest road to the WCF if they won…now OKC is a bigger favorite to go back to the finals
I was glad to hear Devin articulate what we don’t want to see during the playoffs against Denver. Devin said: "And we come out here [Denver during the playoffs] and we are going to all hit our 3 pts shots, we gonna play better defense and we'll go from there. In what world does that work?? As a coach, it has got to drive you crazy!". I agree, and Casey and Devin, perhaps there would be a way for you to make a show on how the Spurs could play differently to win a playoff series against Denver(?)
Senseless 3s all over the place = guaranteed loss. Another good lesson. The Spurs cannot win any game against very good playoff teams by jacking up 32 three pts shots out of 47. In the playoffs, I think that they cannot win games when they shoot more than 32, 35 3s per game maximum either. At 25 to 32 3s per game, the Spurs can potentially win any game against any team in the playoffs, which are different from the regular season when it comes to 3 pts shooting: it’s clearly harder in the playoffs to shoot well beyond the arc and the Spurs will not become a good 3 pts shooting team by magic.
The Spurs wiil have to choose between 2 options offensively:
1- The Spurs can win in an intelligent manner by playing with a high speed of ball movement, with consistent offensive concentration to find the right player and spot to shoot, with the deep variety of 2 pts shots they master and with no more than a third of 3 pts shots.
2- Or the Spurs can disregard their key offensive strength (the best 2 pts shooting team in the world), be arrogant with 3s and lose in a dumb way with countless lazy jacked up 3s.
We shall see. The match against Denver was the last warning…
It's going to be fine, spurs have to learn that hard way
As a nuggets fan don’t worry y’all did the right thing. An eventual long series vs Denver will help yall in the long run. You guys got Wemby for the next 15 years. Cmon man
As a Nuggets fan I think the Nuggets by winning both put the Spurs and Nuggets into their hardest path the finals. OKC is the true winner of this game.
OKC now only has to face either the Nuggets or the Spurs not Both. So OKC's biggest problems have to beat each other up before meeting OKC. Either way I hope the Nuggets or Spurs come out to beat OKC.
Obviously, I prefer the nuggets beat OKC.
2 of the loses were with out Victor and the one loses with him was by 2 points and in Denver. We will be good
I'm baffled why we rested Wemby. If we won that game Wemby could have rested after we basically sweep Suns and Rockets. We could have rested the whole team in round 2 while OKC and Denver battle it out. I think we made a mistake and I hope we don't pay for it
Now we know spurs will loose second round🎉bravo😂
They won mental ascendant… It will be harder to face them now. OKC has an easier path. Even if we win against Denver , we will be so tired coming for OKC mentally… That will cost the title.Rookie mistake
Very concerned. They are not getting pass Denver. They should have atleast played Kornet to get some rebounds. We need another big that can shoot 3's. They dont respect Kornet from the outside. Minnesotabis a ptoblem for the Spurs too. Coach should have played Wemby. Bad decision. They have a week off. He could have rested then.
Well the nuggets were trying to lose too. They played only bench warmers
How annoyed should I be that Wemby didn’t play and the Spurs didn’t take the opportunity to knock the Nuggets down to the 4th seed? Because I’m a little annoyed.
This season is fucked now.
What a BLOWN OPPORTUNITY!!! Jokic comes in here with Julian Strawther and his scrub bunch…and we did THIS????????? The SUNS do not stink…in fact they're healthy and VERYU well COACHED…Definitely CONCERNED…plus how is WEMBY REALLY….I'm sure D.Brooks will terst his ribs right away!
Wemby not playing…to help CLEAR the path to OKC…has to concern EVERYBODY!
I understand that Denver is Very good And a dangerous opponent but If you are a real candidate for the title, you have to face the best. And If you lose, learn from it and comeback stronger. You can't win a tlttle hoping you won't face the other best teams
there was plenty of talent on the floor to beat the nuggets. no aaron gordon, castle should've had a monster game. harper as well.
Season over thanks to this loss, the players didn't care and didn't really understand the importance of this game, see y'all next season
Imagine Joker and Wemby playing together in SA, best defense and best offense, those two might break the 73-9 record.
Mitch is not him and probably will never be.
Is not a good coach when it's time to adapt
Vic only played one of the 4 and they gave that game away. We also beat them without Vic these guys need to relax
LOL I never seen Spurs fans panic so much over the nuggets😂
How many SPURS fans right now..WISH…we would have taken those expiring contracts we had…along with a picks package and traded for a player!!!! of consequence(FORWARD)!!!! Like I kep saying right before the deadline…and all I heard about was the process!!! 1 player..for the Spurs a FORWARD of consequence..really makes a big difference! Not trading for a player of consequence..with OBVIOUS draft assets…may come back and BITE us..really hard!
As a Nuggets fan, I think this was an idiotic move not to play Wemby tonight and let me explain.
Denver has problems with Okc
Okc has problems with Spurs
Spurs have problems with Denver
I honestly think tonights game was as important for the whole playoffs as it gets and I will add 1 more thing: I think every half brained guy would accept Wemby even skipping round 1 of playoffs but having LA or whoever in the 2nd round than having Wemby for an easy first round and then facing the only team that you have issues with. This move might have cost them the potential title run.
Went from possibly championship to guaranteed second round exit these the playoff failures they talking about they got to go thru to become champions consider this the first step not to mention the nuggets snapped 3 spurs winning streaks this year
The worst thing about this game is that f-ing ESPN picked it up at the last minute so it wasn’t on league pass. As a Nuggets fan since their ABA days, I don’t take anything for granted. The Lakers owned them for decades, then Jokic. They owned the Wolves forever until suddenly they didn’t in 2024. I hope they get to round 2 as a Spurs-Nuggets series would be cinema.
Nuggets fan here! I’m really looking forward to a potential WCSF matchup against such a young and ethical team like the Spurs. Last game was a pure treat to watch; seeing Jokic and Wemby face off is absolute basketball poetry. Playing against the Thunder is just frustrating—and I don’t mean their talent, but rather the refereeing and the 'antics' from players like Dort.
ITS WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE PLAYOFFS WHEN YOU MEET UP WITH THEM AGAIN SAME SONERIO JUST A QUICK GLIMPSE AT YOUR LOSS IN THE PLAYOFFS WHEN ANYONE MEETS MVP 4 BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD JOKERRRRRRRR
Don’t matter no one is going to win a chip trying to duck certain teams. Eventually they are going to have to face them if spurs beat them in 2nd the amount of confidence going to okc will help
Ya sound like a bunch of crybabies 😂😂 Thunder up
Mind games
Nuggets would have preferred to play Houston over the wolves. Ownership was hoping the nuggets would lose.
When will DPOY be announced?
We're only toiling around for now ..watch and see!!
Spurs own okc, nuggets own spurs, okc owns nuggets. Wemby neutralizes okc drives, Denver neutralizes wemby with jokers assist, okc takes advantage Denver’s lack of defense. Okc #1 seed and the spurs hyper focus on okc may be the down fall of the spurs.
Not who, but when will the spurs first playoff game be? Or, is it TBD?
As Denver fan, i think we both fucked this up. This seeding favors only OKC, because they only face one of us. Idk what spurs was thinking. Denver sitted everyone but jokic (he needed this game bc of 65 games rule).
Don,t worry Spurs fans, the Wolves were built to beat the Nuggets. And if not, then look out.
The Nuggets fear the Wolves. The Spurs fear the Nuggets. And the Thunder fear the Spurs. Houston fears everyone. And the Lakers fear nobody but should. Love the NBA.
Let's hope Minnesota gives them a tough match and a long series and the Spurs can take care of business quickly
If I was a Spurs fan (I’m a Nugs fan) I’d be worried about the first round. Fox is very hot and cold. Always has been. My second favorite team is the Spurs btw. Loved Pop and that dynasty. I detest the Thunder. You all woulda beat the Thunder but won’t play them now. We will beat you in the second round. NBA is about matchups. You had the chance to hope OKC could take us out but blew it. We played guys that couldn’t play dead on a western but it was total bad luck for you that Jok had to play a half. He was himself and built that lead up. Bad luck. Doesn’t matter. We will meet you in the second round and it’ll be epic. Good luck to you all. Love your team and love your beautiful city.
The 65 have rule haunted us. Jokic had to play.
It was absolutely tragic to see this team going down like this. If you wanted some starters to get reps, 1st half was enough. Not sure what they were trying to accomplish this game. Playing starters against G league / 3rd string Nuggets players until the last min only to lose by double digits which cause them to have harder route. This game resulted literally nothing good for the team. Embarrassing rookie mistake for Mitch and players (yes, especially vets like Fox, KJ and Vassell not to crush their opp once Jokic came off). Hopefully, they take something away but losses like these make me worried about this team in the playoff.
If the Spurs play the Nuggets in the second round (which they will), the best case scenario I see happening is the Spurs losing in 6 games. Other than that, it's not gonna look good against them…..
Denver tried as hard as they could to give you guys this win at the end of the game and you just couldn't capitalize on it! Have fun!
And you know what? Jordan got beat up by Pistons and he had to learn to beat them. Spurs are better off going against their kryptonite versus trying to duck smoke. That's not what real champions do.
Only good thing all the games nuggets beat the spurs wemby played one game out of thise loses
1:00 I'm not sure I would qualify no starters as full power but ok
Long term mindset success over potentially having team labeled as weak. Wemby will be a factor for 10-15 years. Not shying away from the Nuggets this year will pay dividends in the future.