The San Antonio Spurs had a five-game win streak snapped by the Denver Nuggets on Thursday despite being up by 20 points.
The San Antonio Spurs suffered their first home loss since January on Thursday night, falling to the Denver Nuggets 136-13`1.
The Spurs were led by Stephon Castle's stellar 30-point game, and he added 11 rebounds and ten assists for good measure, getting his third triple-double of his career. However, it wasn't quite enough, as the Spurs allowed Jamal Murray to finish with 39 points, 16 of which came in the fourth quarter.
Nikola Jokic offered a triple-double of his own, finishing with 31 points, 20 rebounds, and 12 dimes.
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Why Spurs' Loss to Nuggets Was Ironic
After besting the Detroit Pistons in their return home after the Rodeo Road Trip, San Antonio turned around and crawled back from a 25-point deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers. On Thursday, they blew a 20-point lead of their own.
As a team, the Spurs shot a solid 40.4% from 3-point range, but it was a tale of two halves. In the first, the Spurs made 11 shots from downtown and held Denver to just four. In the final 24 minutes, the Spurs still made eight, although Denver got a boost of efficiency, led by Murray getting hot at just the right time.
Of course, the Spurs were without Victor Wembanyama, their best player, although they beat Denver by three points in an earlier match-up, also without Wembanyama.
If the postseason were to start today, the Spurs and Nuggets wouldn't see each other until the Conference Finals. Based on the close nature of their lone win and the devastation of their loss, ducking Denver should bode well for the Spurs.
San Antonio and Denver still have two matchups later in the season, and should serve as a test to see if Wembanyama can pass Jokic in the MVP race. Of course, both players are in danger of missing the 65-game threshold for individual awards, in which case Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will win his second Michael Jordan Trophy. For now, it's a five-man race with Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown also in it, but as the season wears on, expect head-to-head matchups to play a bigger role as voters try to differentiate between the candidates.