Given his five NBA titles, it’s safe to say that the San Antonio Spurs are a better team when head coach Gregg Popovich is on the bench. That wasn’t the case on Thursday night, though, as the Spurs defeated the Nuggets, 118-104, thanks in large part to a second-half run the Spurs went on after Popovich was ejected from the game.
Denver was within one point of San Antonio with under two minutes to go in the first half when Popovich was called for a technical foul for arguing with the officials. The 21-year veteran coach continued to press his case and was called for a second technical and ejected from the game. After the halftime break the Spurs proceeded to go on a 15-0 run to start the third quarter and eventually run away with a 14-point victory.
Nikola Jokic scored a career-high 35 points in the loss, his second career-high night in three nights. He’s averaging over 31 points per game over his last three games. Kawhi Leonard, meanwhile, led the Spurs with 34 and rookie Dejounte Murray had a career-high 24 in the win. Jokic also logged his fourth consecutive double-double and sixth of 2017.
The Nuggets have a back-to-back this weekend when they host the Clippers on Saturday night and then travel to Minnesota for a Sunday evening game. The loss drops Denver to 17-24 on the season, although they still hold the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
