The San Antonio Spurs sat out Victor Wembanyama in the season finale against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, allowing their franchise star to heal from his rib contusion. The Spurs had every incentive to win the game, as doing so would have sent the Nuggets to the fourth seed and avoided a potential second-round playoff series against Nikola Jokic and Co.
Instead, the Spurs may now have to contend with the Nuggets, the team they’ve struggled to beat since the start of 2026, in the playoffs. In fact, the Spurs are 30-4 since Feb. 1, and three of those losses have come against the Nuggets.
Volume Sports’ Jason Timpf feels the Spurs made a costly error by not going for the jugular on Sunday and ending the possibility of a Denver playoff series.
“If San Antonio loses to Denver in Round 2, tonight has a chance to go down as one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen an NBA team do,” Timpf wrote on X.
“Resting Wemby & losing to a team sitting all of their best players when a single home win massively increases your title odds? I’m in shock…”
Spurs Attempted to Win
In fairness to the Spurs, every other key rotational player, aside from Wemby and Luke Kornet, played Sunday’s game — against a Nuggets team that sat out all its starters and other key bench pieces, except for Jokic, who played just 18 minutes in the first half.
The Spurs entered the game as 11.5-point favorites and were expected to win. That’s precisely why De’Aaron Fox played 33 minutes and went down swinging in the fourth quarter when he jacked up three threes within a minute. San Antonio probably just didn’t expect the likes of Curtis Jones, Jalen Pickett and David Roddy to make huge contributions off the bench, and for Julian Strawther to record a career-high 25 points.
Timpf, though, still feels the Spurs blew it on Sunday night, specifically by not having any interior presence to match up with Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas.
“This keeps getting dumber the more I think about it,” he wrote.
Spurs Playoffs Return After 6 Years
“The Spurs this season were -7.1 net in 1317 possessions with both Wemby and Kornet off the floor, and they healthy scratched them both in their most important regular season game.
“An impossible level of stupidity,” added Timpf.
Elsewhere, ESPN’s “Get Up” panel also questioned whether the Spurs made a blunder by not playing Wembanyama in arguably the season’s most important game.
Spurs beat writer Dusty Garza felt the Nuggets killed the Spurs with 33 second-chance points, as San Antonio lacked a quality interior presence.
“The Spurs missed Luke Kornet and Victor Wembanyama. Without them to anchor the paint and secure the glass, the Spurs’ backup bigs who don’t get many runs, were… Well, overwhelmed.”
The criticism aside, Spurs fans have reason to celebrate, as their beloved franchise returns to the playoff stage for the first time in six years. The next few months will also mark Wemby’s introduction to playoff hoops — a moment in and of itself.
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