Game Thread Spurs (62-19) vs Nuggets (53-28) (Sunday 4/12/26) [7:30PM CDT]

[wEmBoY]

Wemby has struggled to defend the superstar bigs so far in his career.
Not just Jokic, but when healthy Embiid, Giannis, and even AD have had really big nights against Wemby.
He doesn't match up well with the more physical bigs.
If we face the Nuggest in the playoffs, I hope that we change our approach and put someone else on Jokic and let Wemby work as a help defender.
It's a big bummer that we couldn't win this one and put Denver on the other side of the bracket.
Making the WCF will count as a great success imo.

But but but wembi is best defender in the world. Right?

 

[Exstatic]

exactly. you could say that Denver is maybe our worst matchup in the NBA. and we did pretty well against OKC. and OKC usually does well against Denver.

Making Denver and OKC fight in the second round would have been very important for us. and in my opinion, it would have worth the risk of playing Wemby, except if he was still hampered by his ribs injury, which didn't seem to be the case against the mavs.

You play Wemby, and he goes down in game #82, when we had the #2 seed locked up a week and a half ago. Now it doesn’t really matter who,you play in the second round.

FWIW, Wemby was supposedly in some discomfort against Dallas.

 

[heyheymymy]

Last night still leaving me disappointed and confused. Fans in the arena had to sit through both no Wemby and a bad loss. Agree with others that it ends a great season on a sour note.

I was cool with going for the Barnes record under the impression it was a cake walk with Murray, AG, Braun, Cam, THJ all out and Wemby was in. Once Wemby was scratched it should've been no fucking around if Spurs really wanted to win. San Antonio's approach to last night's game was very puzzling.

It did not seem like the Spurs took beating the Nuggets last night very seriously at all. If Spurs wanted to optimize their playoff path they would've gone all in on that last game. Makes me think they were avoiding something else. OKC will barely work up a sweat to the WCF and could get blindsided without a prior test? Spurs pitting DEN and MIN against each other was more preferable? Maybe Wemby wanted "The Harder Path"?

 

[DTW]

How would all out have been any different?

Play at least one of the rotational C's. The second I found out Wembanyama was joining Kornet as unavailable, I said in this thread it's probably a loss. Can't expect to win in that situation period, especially against the two C's the Nuggets have.

So at that point, sit the entire rotation, don't risk injury or admit to yourselves and tell them that you want to avoid them.

 

[Exstatic]

Denver didn't choose any midle ground by playing Jokic 18 minutes: they just let him play the 15 minutes he needed to reach the 65 games limit. They didn't care about this game, if he had already played 65 games, he wouldn't have played.

That's just a bad loss. That has nothing to do with the incredible season and the legitimate excitation for the PO. But our odds of wining it all probably decreased with this loss...... except if the wolves beat them.

They handled the Wolves neatly this year, but struggled against the Rockets. I don’t see LA getting outofbthefirstround, so Denver may have done us a favor,since they will likely dispatch Minny, and keep us from one of the teams we’ve truly struggled with.

 

[Exstatic]

Play at least one of the rotational C's. The second I found out Wembanyama was joining Kornet as unavailable, I said in this thread it's probably a loss. Can't expect to win in that situation period, especially against the two C's the Nuggets have.

So at that point, sit the entire rotation, don't risk injury or admit to yourselves and tell them that you want to avoid them.

Kornet got a major hatchet job twice against Dallas, and was in obvious pain. You don’t play him on Sunday. I’ve already answered the Wemby thing above.

 

[scott]

Last night still leaving me disappointed and confused. Fans in the arena had to sit through both no Wemby and a bad loss. Agree with others that it ends a great season on a sour note.

I was cool with going for the Barnes record under the impression it was a cake walk with Murray, AG, Braun, Cam, THJ all out and Wemby was in. Once Wemby was scratched it should've been no fucking around if Spurs really wanted to win. San Antonio's approach to last night's game was very puzzling.

It did not seem like the Spurs took beating the Nuggets last night very seriously at all. If Spurs wanted to optimize their playoff path they would've gone all in on that last game. Makes me think they were avoiding something else. OKC will barely work up a sweat to the WCF and could get blindsided without a prior test? Spurs pitting DEN and MIN against each other was more preferable? Maybe Wemby wanted "The Harder Path"?

I only watch a clip from Carter Bryant's post game interview... and he seemed to not be upset at all, he was joking about the comments Steph made to him after his ally oop. This leads me to believe, the team didn't care too much about this loss.

 

[DTW]

They handled the Wolves neatly this year, but struggled against the Rockets. I don’t see LA getting outofbthefirstround, so Denver may have done us a favor,since they will likely dispatch Minny, and keep us from one of the teams we’ve truly struggled with.

That's fine, then sit the other 80% of the rotation, don't risk injury, hurt the fledgling confidence vs them or further boost theirs.

 

[scott]

Play at least one of the rotational C's. The second I found out Wembanyama was joining Kornet as unavailable, I said in this thread it's probably a loss. Can't expect to win in that situation period, especially against the two C's the Nuggets have.

So at that point, sit the entire rotation, don't risk injury or admit to yourselves and tell them that you want to avoid them.

I get this line of thinking... but I think Wemby and Kornet are legitimately hurting to the point where it's better to just let them rest in game 82.

No regrets here.

 

[heyheymymy]

I only watch a clip from Carter Bryant's post game interview... and he seemed to not be upset at all, he was joking about the comments Steph made to him after his ally oop. This leads me to believe, the team didn't care too much about this loss.

Definitely did not have the true sense of urgency you'd expect. Makes me wonder if they were ducking MIN?

 

[LeBowen]

You play CB against those lineups. They won’t have a bruising big, or it would slow them down.

The question is will he be ready?
Playing out of position in the playoffs as a rookie is as difficult as it gets.

 

[spurraider21]

I get this line of thinking... but I think Wemby and Kornet are legitimately hurting to the point where it's better to just let them rest in game 82.

No regrets here.

wemby was healthy enough not only to coast through 20 minutes against dallas but played 26 and was uber aggressive scoring 40. im not buying it tbh. they should have recognized joker would play no more than 20 minutes and just have wemby match those minutes. if we still managed to lose the 2nd half then whatever.

 

[scott]

The question is will he be ready?
Playing out of position in the playoffs as a rookie is as difficult as it gets.

I'm looking forward to seeing CB (and Dylan and Steph for that matter) in Round 1. They are just young and "dumb" enough to where they may not notice that the bright lights are supposed to scare them.

Vic I put in a different classification between he's been through the spotlight of Euroleague and the Olympics. Steph has the Final Four under his belt, but Vic's experience hits different. I'm honestly be a little more worried about guys like KJ and Vassell and Fox. Vets who have been in the league long enough without vast playoff experience to where the big stage might affect them. With that said, Fox played well in his one playoff series, taking the Curry Warriors to 7. Dev gives me some confidence as the guy who stepped up in that Play-In Game where DJM shit the bed and last year's win-or-go-home cup game versus Phoenix (in addition to some other games earning the Big Game Dev moniker from me). And KJ I just believe in because he's all heart. That my copium kicking in.

 

[scott]

wemby was healthy enough not only to coast through 20 minutes against dallas but played 26 and was uber aggressive scoring 40. im not buying it tbh. they should have recognized joker would play no more than 20 minutes and just have wemby match those minutes. if we still managed to lose the 2nd half then whatever.

True, but he did say after the game he wouldn't have played if he already had reached 65 games. I take him at his word. I didn't see, but someone said that he said he wasn't feeling it before this game? If that is true, why would we second guess that. This game was not worth sacrificing even one game of health in the playoffs for.

Timpf is criticizing the Spurs for how they handled "the most important game of the season"... but this was not the most important game of the season. The work they did in the previous 81 games made this the one of the least important game of the season, IMO.

Would it have been better for DEN to be on the other side of the bracket? Sure. But apparently Wemby and the staff didn't value that over the rest he got in this game. I'm going to go with their judgement in this one.

 

[spurraider21]

True, but he did say after the game he wouldn't have played if he already had reached 65 games. I take him at his word. I didn't see, but someone said that he said he wasn't feeling it before this game? If that is true, why would we second guess that. This game was not worth sacrificing even one game of health in the playoffs for.

Timpf is criticizing the Spurs for how they handled "the most important game of the season"... but this was not the most important game of the season. The work they did in the previous 81 games made this the one of the least important game of the season, IMO.

Would it have been better for DEN to be on the other side of the bracket? Sure. But apparently Wemby and the staff didn't value that over the rest he got in this game. I'm going to go with their judgement in this one.

i agree it was not the most important game of the season. frankly i think the most important games were:

1) Christmas game against OKC (we had already beaten them twice so we were getting their best shot)

2) Cup game against OKC that put us on the map

3) the game in Detroit. it happened amidst an extended win streak, but the quality of most of those preceding wins was quite poor. detroit was looking dominant. game was uber physical with refs swallowing whistles both ways and we beat them at their own game

but given this was the last game of the season, there was an obvious goal to knock them to the OKC side of the bracket, no ambiguity about it. get it done and you make your path easier and make OKC's path harder. jokic played half his usual minutes and the rest of their rotation was out. instead of just putting our foot on their throats before getting a FULL WEEK off, we gave them a chance when we didnt need to.

wasnt "feeling it"? lol cmon man. go out there, give it 20 minutes and the game was a wrap. and again, it was a sunday game and our postseason opener is going to be sunday.

 

[Exstatic]

That's fine, then sit the other 80% of the rotation, don't risk injury, hurt the fledgling confidence vs them or further boost theirs.

Do you think beating a Wembyless Spurs squad by 10, while playing Jokic boosted their confidence? I kinda doubt it.

 

[scott]

i agree it was not the most important game of the season. frankly i think the most important games were:

1) Christmas game against OKC (we had already beaten them twice so we were getting their best shot)

2) Cup game against OKC that put us on the map

3) the game in Detroit. it happened amidst an extended win streak, but the quality of most of those preceding wins was quite poor. detroit was looking dominant. game was uber physical with refs swallowing whistles both ways and we beat them at their own game

but given this was the last game of the season, there was an obvious goal to knock them to the OKC side of the bracket, no ambiguity about it. get it done and you make your path easier and make OKC's path harder. jokic played half his usual minutes and the rest of their rotation was out. instead of just putting our foot on their throats before getting a FULL WEEK off, we gave them a chance when we didnt need to.

wasnt "feeling it"? lol cmon man. go out there, give it 20 minutes and the game was a wrap. and again, it was a sunday game and our postseason opener is going to be sunday.

I don't know the context or the actual "wasn't feeling it" comment, since I was reporting it second hand. But if Wemby was still feeling sore and the staff decided it wasn't worth it, that's all I would need to not play him. I'm not losing any sleep over it and I'm happy we'll go into the playoffs with Wemby in the best condition possible all things considered. On that note... I also would have been fine sacrificing his DPOY and All NBA 1st Team if Wemby said his ribs were too sore. But those things were important to him so he went out and played 26 minutes instead.

Why would I second guess him?

I've been harping on this for almost the whole season... if we're so weak when Wemby and Kornet sit (two guys who both clearly need load management), then we should have taken the 3rd string C position more seriously. But we didn't, and we lost.

 

[scott]

Do you think beating a Wembyless Spurs squad by 10, while playing Jokic boosted their confidence? I kinda doubt it.

David Roddy and Curtis Jones probably feel a lot more confident... good thing we won't be facing them in the playoffs.

Strawther on the other hand... is he in their actual rotation? By the time the MIN series is over, I'm not sure any confidence he got from this game is going to really matter either way

 

[spurraider21]

I don't know the context or the actual "wasn't feeling it" comment, since I was reporting it second hand. But if Wemby was still feeling sore and the staff decided it wasn't worth it, that's all I would need to not play him. I'm not losing any sleep over it and I'm happy we'll go into the playoffs with Wemby in the best condition possible all things considered. On that note... I also would have been fine sacrificing his DPOY and All NBA 1st Team if Wemby said his ribs were too sore. But those things were important to him so he went out and played 26 minutes instead.

Why would I second guess him?

I've been harping on this for almost the whole season... if we're so weak when Wemby and Kornet sit (two guys who both clearly need load management), then we should have taken the 3rd string C position more seriously. But we didn't, and we lost.

im with you on the last point, and i think we've both been vocal about it. ok so, biyombo is unplayably bad but sticks around because he's a locker room dude and wemby's sparring partner... fine. but what even is Plumlee? and early in the year we were at least trying out Olynyk here and there, and i know he's washed. but if he's so bad that they arent playing him in games where 2 centers are out and Plumdog/Biyombo are ass, then what are we doing with that roster spot? the fact that two of our former guys, Landale and Bassey were so easily obtainable is frustrating

 

[CGD]

This was not enjoyable.

Jesus. I missed that one

 

[scott]

im with you on the last point, and i think we've both been vocal about it. ok so, biyombo is unplayably bad but sticks around because he's a locker room dude and wemby's sparring partner... fine. but what even is Plumlee? and early in the year we were at least trying out Olynyk here and there, and i know he's washed. but if he's so bad that they arent playing him in games where 2 centers are out and Plumdog/Biyombo are ass, then what are we doing with that roster spot? the fact that two of our former guys, Landale and Bassey were so easily obtainable is frustrating

Yeah, using 3 roster spots on guys who aren't able to provide anything at the same position is wild... and we don't use our two-ways either... we basically handcuffed ourselves with a 12-man roster. It's even more impressive we got 62 wins with that in mind.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

You play Wemby, and he goes down in game #82, when we had the #2 seed locked up a week and a half ago. Now it doesn’t really matter who,you play in the second round.

FWIW, Wemby was supposedly in some discomfort against Dallas.

Wemby doesn’t play and I think that was 100% the right decision. We had more than enough personnel on the court to get the job done and it didn’t happen. That’s it move on.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

exactly. you could say that Denver is maybe our worst matchup in the NBA. and we did pretty well against OKC. and OKC usually does well against Denver.

Making Denver and OKC fight in the second round would have been very important for us. and in my opinion, it would have worth the risk of playing Wemby, except if he was still hampered by his ribs injury, which didn't seem to be the case against the mavs.

If Denver kicks our ass in round 2, we are just not good enough to be the NBA champions this season. I’m not gonna waste energy stressing out about what could’ve been if we avoided them.

 

[spursistan]

i agree it was not the most important game of the season. frankly i think the most important games were:

1) Christmas game against OKC (we had already beaten them twice so we were getting their best shot)

2) Cup game against OKC that put us on the map

3) the game in Detroit. it happened amidst an extended win streak, but the quality of most of those preceding wins was quite poor. detroit was looking dominant. game was uber physical with refs swallowing whistles both ways and we beat them at their own game

but given this was the last game of the season, there was an obvious goal to knock them to the OKC side of the bracket, no ambiguity about it. get it done and you make your path easier and make OKC's path harder. jokic played half his usual minutes and the rest of their rotation was out. instead of just putting our foot on their throats before getting a FULL WEEK off, we gave them a chance when we didnt need to.

wasnt "feeling it"? lol cmon man. go out there, give it 20 minutes and the game was a wrap. and again, it was a sunday game and our postseason opener is going to be sunday.

Yeah I saw that quote by Mitch and he made it sound like Wemby was the one who decided to not give it a go. That's two last-minute scratches against Jokic in the last month. i think getting more reps defending him would have been more beneficial for Wemby in the big picture.

 

[Max_power]

Same here. I don't think I've been this mad at a loss since the Nuggets series in 2018/2019 (not that I was super mad with this one). It's been a while. Last truly bad losses were 2017 playoffs game 1 vs Warriors and then OKC series previous year.
This game has really pissed me off, though. All starting with the fans not wearing the shirts and the team playing WEAK. The Nuggets came in a bitch slapped them with their third stringers and Jokic just looking to get the required minutes. The team should be super embarrassed with this loss. Capped off a great regular season with a gutless performance.

Not the way you want to go into the playoffs. I wish the playoffs started earlier. Waiting a whole week sucks. The team is really going to have to turn it around before the playoffs start because an effort like this will get them


I doubt Denver is losing to them for a third straight time in the playoffs. Wolves fully healthy are really good, but they haven't been healthy (I don't expect them to just turn it on) whereas Denver have gotten healthier and are playing some of the best ball of the season right now. The Wolves would be capable if they're fully healthy and in form (they've been very, very inconsistent), but I don't know if they can just turn it on. I also haven't looked how they are health wise heading into the playoffs. Are their players now healthy? Edit : Just read LeBowen's post about Edwards only playing 3 games in the space of the past month. Yeah, Wolves aren't likely to be able to turn it on and beat this Nuggets team.

Spurs bought into their own hype and crapped the bed. Victor probably also thought/expected the team to win and was probably overconfident, so he likely sat thinking they've got it wrapped up. Kinda soft if you ask me. If he wanted to win the game, he should have played if he could play. He's got no one but himself to blame if he actually wanted to win this game.



I doubt Denver is losing to them for a third straight time in the playoffs. Wolves fully healthy are really good, but they haven't been healthy (I don't expect them to just turn it on) whereas Denver have gotten healthier and are playing some of the best ball of the season right now. The Wolves would be capable if they're fully healthy and in form (they've been very, very inconsistent), but I don't know if they can just turn it on. I also haven't looked how they are health wise heading into the playoffs. Are their players now healthy? Edit : Just read LeBowen's post about Edwards only playing 3 games in the space of the past month. Yeah, Wolves aren't likely to be able to turn it on and beat this Nuggets team.

Spurs bought into their own hype and crapped the bed. Victor probably also thought/expected the team to win and was probably overconfident, so he likely sat thinking they've got it wrapped up. Kinda soft if you ask me. If he wanted to win the game, he should have played if he could play. He's got no one but himself to blame if he actually wanted to win this game.

Same here. I don't think I've been this mad at a loss since the Nuggets series in 2018/2019 (not that I was super mad with this one). It's been a while. Last truly bad losses were 2017 playoffs game 1 vs Warriors and then OKC series previous year.
This game has really pissed me off, though. All starting with the fans not wearing the shirts and the team playing WEAK. The Nuggets came in a bitch slapped them with their third stringers and Jokic just looking to get the required minutes. The team should be super embarrassed with this loss. Capped off a great regular season with a gutless performance.

Not the way you want to go into the playoffs. I wish the playoffs started earlier. Waiting a whole week sucks. The team is really going to have to turn it around before the playoffs start because an effort like this will get them embarrassed in round 1. Can't have any repeats of this in the playoffs.

I'd rather play in 2-3 days time. They need to abolish this play-in BS. Teams are tanking left right and center. All those teams fighting for 7th and 8th should all be playing to win at the end of the season if they want to make the playoffs, but they're all just throwing games knowing they'll still get a chance finishing 9th and 10th.


I doubt Denver is losing to them for a third straight time in the playoffs. Wolves fully healthy are really good, but they haven't been healthy (I don't expect them to just turn it on) whereas Denver have gotten healthier and are playing some of the best ball of the season right now. The Wolves would be capable if they're fully healthy and in form (they've been very, very inconsistent), but I don't know if they can just turn it on. I also haven't looked how they are health wise heading into the playoffs. Are their players now healthy? Edit : Just read LeBowen's post about Edwards only playing 3 games in the space of the past month. Yeah, Wolves aren't likely to be able to turn it on and beat this Nuggets team.

Spurs bought into their own hype and crapped the bed. Victor probably also thought/expected the team to win and was probably overconfident, so he likely sat thinking they've got it wrapped up. Kinda soft if you ask me. If he wanted to win the game, he should have played if he could play. He's got no one but himself to blame if he actually wanted to win this game.

Denver is 1-1 against Minessota in the last two meetings, but i get what you Say. Denver un the favorite, but the wolves still have the talent to upset them imo