During the Friday night NBA slate, Keldon Johnson scored 23 points as the San Antonio Spurs stunned the Denver Nuggets 128-120.
“It felt great,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The fans were really into it. We put them to sleep in the first quarter and then we woke them up a little bit.
Popovich explained: “So it was great to have all those people yelling and screaming. They deserve to have a good night.”
In an injury-plagued season, the Spurs shot 54 percent when their entire lineup was available, leading to Doug McDermott scoring 20 points and Jeremy Sochan scoring 19.
NBA SCORES & NEWS: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio Spurs, Nikola Jokic & Denver Nuggets Updates
As Jokic approaches his third straight MVP campaign, he surpassed his 26th triple-double. In Jokic’s triple-doubles, the Nuggets had not lost this season.
In its second straight loss, Denver, which had won four straight games, was led by Jamal Murray, who had 24 points. With a 46-21 record, the Nuggets tied the Milwaukee Bucks for the best record in the NBA, but are 2.5 games short.
“I think we have faith in what we can do,” Murray said.
As the Nuggets beat Chicago 117-96 on Wednesday, they were hoping to bounce back from a sloppy performance. With two straight losses and 18 straight losses, San Antonio entered the game with a losing record.
NBA SCORES & NEWS: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio Spurs, Nikola Jokic & Denver Nuggets Updates
A few days after the team’s home loss to the Bulls, Nuggets coach Michael Malone urged his personnel to “look in the mirror.” A second-half altercation didn’t clear up the message for the Nuggets.
As the third quarter ended, Zach Collins of the Spurs and Michael Porter Jr. of the Nuggets were ejected after teammates, officials, and their coaches had to separate them.
Following a series of hard bumps and shoves between Collins and Jokic, Porter nailed a one-handed dunk on Collins. In response to Porter’s glare, Collins charged at and bumped him from behind. Porter shoved Collins in the throat after nose-to-nose contact. A 5-0 run by the Nuggets in the second half brought them within 85-84, but San Antonio never looked back.
“I don’t want to say the stakes were high, but I feel like everybody wanted to win and everybody was on the same page,” Spurs center Sandro Mamukelashvili said. “Once you’re at that point and you’re up, you just don’t want to lose that game you just kind of do everything to win.”
In his first quarter of play, Mamukelashvili had 12 points and 5 rebounds. Two of his three 3-pointers were made.
NBA SCORES & NEWS: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio Spurs, Nikola Jokic & Denver Nuggets Updates
While both teams made 13 3-pointers, San Antonio was more dominant in the paint, outscoring Denver 68-54 and pulling down 50 rebounds to Denver’s 33.
“They lived in our paint, outrebounded us and on top of that we missed some really good looks,” Murray said. “It was tough to try to climb back even when we brought a good attitude and good effort. We just couldn’t climb ourselves out of the hole that we created for ourselves.”
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