The Denver Nuggets rested all their starters except for Nikola Jokic against the San Antonio Spurs in the regular season finale, and they won anyway.
Jokic played in the first half to clinch the 65-game game award rule, impressing with his scoring and interior presence against the undersized Spurs without Victor Wembanyama or Luke Kornet. The Spurs played everyone else though, and they were trying to win this game and going small with their best combination of scorers and defenders on the wing to do it.
Interestingly though, the Nuggets were too. They led by at least nine points from the second quarter onward, scoring at will against the Spurs regardless of who was on the floor. When Jokic sat down after he hit the minutes threshold, it was Jonas Valanciunas and Julian Strawther who took up the call, scoring and dominating in the middle of the floor against the Spurs. The Nuggets continued to apply pressure, and in the end, the Spurs didn’t handle it well.
In the fourth quarter, San Antonio shot just 1-of-14 from three. There were several sequences when the Nuggets, who slid Zeke Nnaji to center in clutch time and played an undersized unit, simply gave up offensive rebounds and open shot attempts to De’Aaron Fox consistently. Fox missed everything, and the Nuggets escaped with a win to clinch the third seed in the Western Conference.
The Nuggets had seven players score in double figures and a lot of heroes in this one. Jokic played in just the first half but had 23 points and 8 rebounds. His MVP case got a lot stronger amid a 12-game Nuggets winning streak to close the season.
Julian Strawther set a new career-high with 25 points, scoring consistently in the first three quarters. The Spurs amped up the pressure on him in the fourth, but Strawther clinched his career-high with a run-out layup in the closing minutes after the Nuggets finally collected a defensive rebound.
Jonas Valanciunas played his role to perfection in this game, dominating the interior with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and a block in just 19 minutes. His presence to start the fourth quarter overwhelmed the Spurs interior defenders, and the Nuggets went to him consistently. At times, Valanciunas held up his hands to his teammates in a calming motion, trying to settle down the team and run their offense. It was great veteran leadership and helped earn the Nuggets a big win.
Others to score double figures were Bruce Brown, David Roddy, Curtis Jones, and Jalen Pickett.
Brown was fantastic in his minutes, hitting the floater consistently and making plays for himself and others.
Roddy was another fourth quarter hero, driving to the rim in transition, getting offensive rebound putbacks, hitting And-1’s, and collecting boards. He had 15 points and an absurd 13 rebounds in 33 minutes off the bench.
Curtis Jones shot 4-of-4 from three and made several highly intelligent defensive plays, jumping passing lanes, boxing out well, picking pockets, and more.
Jalen Pickett looked a lot like he did in the Philadelphia 76ers game back in January, hitting clutch buckets in isolation situations to cut down on the opposing team’s momentum. His shots over Harrison Barnes in particular were very impressive.
Overall, there were a lot of heroes in this game. The Nuggets rested almost their entire rotation, but the guys who played played very hard and executed well. It’s telling that Denver still scored 128 points against a Spurs team that was very clearly trying to win while playing their starters high minutes despite the Nuggets mostly playing their deep reserves.
So, after all of that, the regular season is officially over. The Nuggets went 54-28, closing the season on a 12-game win streak. If you just take the first and last 12 games of the regular season, the Nuggets went 22-2 in the stretches when they were at their most healthy. The schedule was certainly easiest then too, and there’s a correlation there.
Covering the Nuggets this season has been quite interesting. One can see the ceiling, and it’s very high. The Nuggets occasionally reach it, but more often than not, they stopped short of that ceiling during the bulk of this year due to injuries, chemistry, regular season apathy, and a low defensive floor. With so many players in and out of the lineup, it was difficult for Denver to ever truly find a rhythm for January, February, and March. Toward the end of March, they had an extended run of minutes together, and they showed a lot to be confident about during these last 12 games.
As I wrote about earlier today though, the Nuggets priorities heading into this game were simple: stay healthy, get Jokic to 65 games played, and clinch homecourt advantage. They did all three, and they even won their final game in the process.
If given truth serum, the Nuggets would probably rather face the Houston Rockets than the Minnesota Timberwolves. They would also probably rather have faced the San Antonio Spurs than the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round though, so they weren’t getting a perfectly stacked deck in their favor no matter what they chose to do. This way, the Nuggets didn’t put their playoff rotation players at injury risk in the final couple games and should be very rested heading into a first round series.
A potential pathway to the NBA Finals won’t be easy. In theory, it includes all three of the Timberwolves, Spurs, and Thunder. That’s exceptionally challenging.
The thing about playoff runs though? They start at the beginning and go step-by-step. Denver can’t and won’t think ahead beyond the Timberwolves. They respect Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, and that group enough to know that looking past what’s right in front of them would be a horrible idea. They will spend this entire week gearing up for the Timberwolves and readying themselves to hit the ground running.
The regular season is officially over. The playoffs are set to begin.
Let’s see if the Nuggets are ready for it.