SAN ANTONIO — At first, you would have thought it was a Game 7. Multiple players held their heads in their hands, eyes closed, silent. Others mumbled the “c-word” to themselves.
The Nuggets choked.
And a locker room that’s usually spirited after wins and level-headed after losses suddenly looked and sounded as bereft as it’s been since the 2023 championship.
Eventually, teammates started working together to comprehend the seeding ramifications. They slowly lifted their heads, got back on their feet. They went to shower off all the wasted sweat.
“Other than the disappointment of dropping this one,” Reggie Jackson said, “there’s not much to say.”
Like the rest of the NBA, the Nuggets were in disbelief after their worst loss of the year. Their most consequential loss in multiple years, potentially.
With 8:16 remaining in the third quarter Friday night, they took an 81-60 lead over the team with the worst record in the Western Conference. Minnesota was in the rearview mirror after Denver’s cathartic head-to-head win two days earlier. The No. 1 seed was in sight. “I feel like we felt like we were gonna win no matter what, and there was no possible way that we could lose this game,” Peyton Watson said in hindsight. “Which I don’t understand.”
He was still trying to understand what happened next. San Antonio scored on eight consecutive possessions, a rally ignited by super-rookie Victor Wembanyama and inspired by nothing more than end-of-year morale. In the last 20 minutes and change of regulation, the Spurs averaged 1.525 points per possession. They scored on 26 of their final 40 possessions (excluding a full-court heave to end the third) and 12 of their last 16 after Denver rebuilt a 12-point lead in the fourth. They doubled their score in those 20 minutes.
That final push, the comeback within the comeback, coincided with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray checking back into the game.
“We controlled our own destiny, and what we accomplished on Wednesday night, we just gave it right back,” coach Michael Malone said. “It was easy to get up for Minnesota. Our guys were locked in. They were focused. They were serious. I don’t think we had the same approach to tonight’s game.”
Seven of San Antonio’s last nine points — including the knockout blow with 0.9 seconds remaining— were scored by a reserve who went 52 consecutive games without playing double-digit minutes at one point this season. Devonte’ Graham has appeared in 22 games and started none. He’s shooting 34% from the field and had made 30 total shots on the season entering Friday’s game, half of them in the last two weeks. He made two shots in the last 30 seconds against Denver to complete the turnaround, sandwiching an open jumper that the presumptive third-time MVP winner failed to convert. “It’s something that I need to make,” Jokic told The Post. “I missed.”
It’s not an irredeemable loss. It didn’t cost the Nuggets their season. They get to keep playing after Sunday. They still get to open the playoffs at Ball Arena.
Here’s what it could cost them: Up to two rounds of home-court advantage.
Last year, the Nuggets took advantage of their superior seeding in all four rounds, winning 10 of 11 home games. This season, the Nuggets finished 33-8 at home. They’re 23-17 on the road going into their finale at Memphis. They’re now third in the pecking order of a three-way tie with Oklahoma City and Minnesota. The only route to the top seed is a bounce-back win combined with the Thunder and Timberwolves both losing Sunday. Malone has to consider whether the risk of playing his starters outweighs the unlikely reward. Jokic and Aaron Gordon both told The Denver Post they’ll leave it up to the coaching staff whether they suit up against the Grizzlies.
Denver is likely to land on the opposite side of the Western Conference bracket as a result of this loss. Whether that’s a punishment or a prize is in the eye of the beholder. The path to the NBA Finals is now most probable to start with Phoenix or New Orleans (3-3 combined vs. Denver this season), rather than the Lakers or Warriors (0-7). Instead of facing only one of Minnesota or Oklahoma City as the No. 1 seed, the Nuggets might have to play a road series against both.
“It’s a huge blow,” Watson said. “We’ve talked about it all year, that we have one of the best home courts in the league. That’s futile now.”
On the other hand, Clippers vs. Mavericks is a brutal 4-5 series. One of those teams will be a frightening second-round opponent for the top seed.
“The path is gonna be tough no matter which way you cut it,” Christian Braun told The Post. “There’s still a chance to have home-court (past the first round). We’ve just gotta understand it was gonna be tough either way. We made it a little tougher on ourselves. But we can bounce back from that. We’re still gonna win the championship.”
San Antonio Spurs guard Devonte’ Graham (4) scores the winning shot over Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Friday, April 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
By this time, Braun had made it through all the necessary stages of grief. He was making a good point. Perhaps nobody else on Denver’s roster watches more NBA basketball in their free time than Braun. Speculating about opponents in a Western Conference this deep, he reasoned, might be a waste of time.
It’s the apparent loss of home-court advantage that stings much more than the potential path through the West.
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“We had a chance to get the 1-seed,” Malone said. “And now, obviously, we’ll likely be the 3-seed.”
But was there any other playoff relevance to this cataclysmic loss? Some way the Nuggets can harness the power of a low point and re-appropriate it as motivation? Some lessons they can learn from it?
“I think we’ve got an experienced team,” Watson said. “I don’t think we learned anything from this game, honestly. I think we’ve already learned that we can’t do that. We’re past the point of learning that just now. … I feel like this is stuff we should have learned already.”