Season 50, Game 36
San Antonio 127, Denver 99
29-7, 2nd in the West
The funny thing is, I don’t even feel like the team played all that well in this game.
The defensive execution was sloppy at times, as Denver got good looks on a lot of nifty back cuts and ball movement. The offense seemed a step slow at times, with lots of missed cutters and a bit too much fancy passing (instead of making the right pass).
The way the game started, it seemed like the Nuggets might drop 150 on the Spurs. They made their first 9 shots, then converted an And-1, then drew 3 straight shooting fouls. It was 3:27 in the 1st quarter before the Spurs recorded a ‘stop’, and even that was a pretty wide open miss. At that time, the Nuggets were 10-of-11 from the floor, 6-of-7 from the FT line. The Spurs got four stops the entire 1st quarter. Four.
And yet only trailed by four points. While the offense wasn’t totally in sync team-wide, the individual shooting performances were phenomenal. The team shot 56% overall. Parker was 10-for-11 for 21 points (with 9 assists to boot); Aldridge was 11-for-18 for 28 points (Denver had nobody who could guard him); Gasol was a nifty 7-for-9; and the team was 12-for-24 from 3, outpacing the Nuggets by 15 points from deep (18 if you disregard the 3 the Nuggets threw up at the buzzer in a 30-point game).
(Photo: David Zalubowski/Associated Press)
Eventually, the Spurs were just too much for the Nuggets’ defense. In sync or not, the Spurs’ offense operates at a level far above the Nuggets’ defense. After a shaky start, Kawhi started to come alive a bit in the second half. Every time the Nuggets threatened to get close, the Spurs had an answer.
And after giving up 33 points in the first quarter, the Spurs only surrendered 66 the rest of the game. That’s very good defense, even if it didn’t always look that way. After starting 10-for-10, the Nuggets finished the rest of the game 29-for-76 (38%).
While the individual pieces don’t always seem to make sense (with a few giant exceptions, obviously), the Spurs always figure out how to play really solid team defense. After a slow start to the season, they once again sit atop the league in defensive efficiency. Yawn.
The Spurs return home to face the Hornets Saturday night, which kicks off a 3-game homestand.
Go Spurs Go.
