The Denver Nuggets have plenty for which to play when they visit the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday in the teams’ regular-season finale.
The Nuggets (53-28) have won 11 straight games, the longest active winning streak in the league. Denver’s latest victory, a 127-107 home decision over top-seeded Oklahoma City on Friday, clinched no worse than the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference.
The Nuggets will earn the No. 3 seed — and a first-round matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves — with either a win over the Spurs or a Los Angeles Lakers loss against last-place Utah. If neither result happens, then the Nuggets will meet the fifth-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round.
Jonas Valanciunas racked up 23 points and 17 rebounds, both season highs, and Julian Strawther added 22 points during Friday’s victory as Denver rested its starting five as well as Spencer Jones and Peyton Watson — both of whom have been sidelined with hamstring strains.
David Roddy hit for 16 of his season-high 21 points in the fourth quarter for Denver on Friday while Jalen Pickett and Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 13 points each and Bruce Brown added 10.
One starter expected to be on the court for Denver on Sunday is star center Nikola Jokic. While he has been battling a right wrist injury, he has to play at least 15 minutes to be eligible for the NBA’s end-of-year awards consideration.
“We’re all aware of that rule,” Denver coach David Adelman said Friday. “We all laughed about the game he got hurt in Miami, when (Jokic) I think was 20 seconds away from the game counting and he almost had a triple-double at that point. Anyway, the minute thing on Sunday will be talked about with the front office, ownership, Nikola. Obviously, his opinion matters in that situation.
“Success in the playoffs matters more than anything else, but this rule stares at us right now, and so we’ve got to make a proper decision. We need to go in there with a real plan — either it is those minutes, or we say, ‘Let’s just move on.'”
Denver’s winning streak includes a 136-134 overtime home win over the Spurs on April 4; the Nuggets have defeated San Antonio twice since March 11 during a stretch when they’ve won 14 of 16 games.
The Spurs have clinched the West’s No. 2 seed and got star Victor Wembanyama the 20 minutes he needed to fulfill the 65-game rule in their 139-120 home victory over Dallas on Friday.
San Antonio (62-19) has won 14 of its past 15 games, with its 62 wins tied for third-most in franchise history and the most since the 2015-16 team captured 67 games in Tim Duncan’s final season.
Wembanyama showed that he is playoff-ready by amassing 40 points and 13 rebounds in 26-plus minutes of play. He returned to the court after missing a game and a half with a left rib contusion and scored 11 of the Spurs’ initial 15 points. He said he felt “very good” about satisfying the 65-game rule.
“Feels like it’s a box that’s checked. Lots of things happen and that’s a good conclusion to it,” said Wembanyama, who scored 40 or more points for the fifth time this season and for the third time in past five appearances.
“I tried to protect (my injured rib) as much as possible while being respectful of the game. But it was OK. It didn’t bother me that much, just a few times where it was a specific movement, a specific hit where it was painful.”
De’Aaron Fox added 18 points and 10 assists for the Spurs in Friday’s win, with Keldon Johnson scoring 17, Harrison Barnes contributing 15, Julian Champagnie tallying 14, Dylan Harper racking up 13 and Carter Bryant producing 12 points. San Antonio played without starting point guard Stephon Castle, who is nursing a sore right knee.
It would not be a surprise to see the Spurs’ starters — including Castle and Wembanyama — play at least some against Denver.
“We’ll see how everybody wakes up, have initial conversations,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Friday. “And so, yeah, I wouldn’t rule out Steph and I wouldn’t rule out everybody that played tonight. But we’ll have those conversations in the next 48 (hours).”
San Antonio has gone 30-3 since Feb. 1 – but two of those losses were to the Nuggets.
