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Final Score: Denver Nuggets beat San Antonio Spurs, 102-99
Denver Nuggets escaped with a win against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday at the Pepsi Centre.
The Nuggets dominated the first half of the match, showcasing a great offensive and defensive effort. They had a big lead towards the end of the second quarter, but San Antonio were able to stick around. The first half ended with a 61-47 lead for the Nuggets.
The second half saw a great comeback by the Spurs who outscored the Nuggets 28-17 in the third quarter and closed into within three points by the start of the fourth quarter. However, turnovers and horrible free throw shooting prevented them from sealing the win.
For the Nuggets, Jamal Murray was the leading scorer with 31 points and six rebounds, whereas LaMarcus Aldridge scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Spurs.
Let us look at the three main talking points from the game.
#3 Spurs make a huge comeback but fell short
After a horrible first half, San Antonio were down by 14 points entering the third quarter. The game seemed to be edging towards the Nuggets until Derrick White came to life with an epic defensive display.
White made four steals in the first 6 minutes of the third quarter and also slammed two monster dunks. He lifted the whole team with his urgency, and the Nuggets started to feel the heat.
Derrick white lifted the whole team and forced a comeback:
The Spurs had a couple of opportunities to tie the game in the last 2 minutes of the game, but they missed four free throws in that duration. Overall, they converted 11 free throws out of the 20 they attempted.
#2 Denver's offense finally turns up
Nuggets have been cold for some time on the offensive end. They lost to the same Spurs team in their last game. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were both kept quiet in that game. Jokic scored just 4 points in that match, whereas Murray managed only 9.
But it was not the case tonight. Both the star players exploded at home and posted big numbers. Jokic finished with 21 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, whereas Murray had a big night with 31 points and six rebounds. Both the players were supported well by the rest of the team.
Malik Beasley came off the bench and scored 21 points. He twisted his ankle in the last quarter and had to leave the game which will be a cause for concern.
Murray also twisted his ankle in the fourth quarter but decided to play through the pain and complete the game.
#1 Big Men do not disappoint
It was an epic matchup between Nikola Jokic and LaMarcus Aldridge as both the big men padded the stat sheet.
Unlike the last game, LaMarcus saw a lot of Jokic on the defensive end this time around. The Serbian gave Aldridge a hard time but he still ended up with 24 points and 7 rebounds with a lot of good plays down the stretch.
Jokic, on the other hand, bounced back with 21 points, nine assists and nine rebounds in the game. He made a very important shot in the final few minutes by executing a beautiful spin move, but then got ejected after committing his sixth foul.
Nuggets were without their big man in the final few seconds but Monte Morris converted two free throws with 7 seconds to go and gave them a three-point lead which sealed the win for his side.
