Did the Spurs just lay out the blueprint for how to defend Nikola Jokic and the undermanned Nuggets?

Eight Golden Nuggets for the eight field goals Juancho Hernangomez sunk in the Nuggets’ 111-103 loss to the Spurs Wednesday night.

1. Since Paul Millsap went down with a fractured big toe three weeks ago in Charlotte, Nikola Jokic has put the Nuggets on his back, posting MVP-caliber numbers as he surges towards what’s likely his first career All-Star appearance. Jokic averages over his last six games — 25.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists — were reminiscent of how the Nuggets’ star center closed the 2017-18 season.

But the Spurs bottled up Jokic as San Antonio beat the Nuggets 111-103 Wednesday, topping Denver for the 12th-straight time in the Lone Star State. Jokic hit just one of his five field goal attempts in 31 minutes of action. His five shots on the night were the fewest amount of field goals he’s attempted in a game since he finished 0-1 from the field on Nov. 7 in Denver’s 89-87 loss in Memphis. For the first time in six games, Jokic didn’t finish the night as the Nuggets’ leading scorer.

So what changed?

2. Michael Malone called Gregg Popovich arguably the greatest coach in NBA history pregame. I’ll one-up Denver’s coach and say Popovich is hands down the greatest NBA coach of all-time. He’s proved it time and time again in the playoffs over the last two decades and Popovich struck gold with his defensive gameplan again against Denver by sending double teams Jokic’s way all night as soon as the Serbian put the ball on the floor. The Spurs forced Denver’s big man into a frustrating five-turnover night.

Jokic has good position against Pau Gasol in the middle of the fourth quarter and over Denver’s last six games this scenario typically leads to a Jokic bucket. From here, Jokic would typically put Gasol in the mix and score or get to the line. But as soon as Jokic takes his first dribble and turns his back to the basket, Derrick White vacates Jamal Murray on the perimeter and quickly doubles down on Jokic as Denver’s big man never sees him coming.

Popovich’s gameplan looked especially smart when the Spurs, and in this case, Bryn Forbes, got to double Jokic and leave Torrey Craig wide open. Craig is only shooting 25 percent from three this year.

This one ended in a Monte Morris three.

Jokic was able to find the likes of Craig, Morris, Juancho Hernangomez, Malik Beasley, Jamal Murray, and Trey Lyles around the perimeter when San Antonio came with the double team. But Denver didn’t make enough open shots. Jokic finished with 10 assists. He could have had around 20.

The Nuggets hit 10 of their 20 threes in the first half but went cold in the third quarter. The Nuggets went 2-8 from distance in the third and save for a late run by Denver’s reserve unit to make things semi-interesting in the final minutes of regulation, the Nuggets shot 3-14 from three across most of the final two quarters.

3. Popovich wanted to make the undermanned Nuggets beat the Spurs from deep. It worked.

Here’s how each Nuggets three-point shooter finished from beyond the arc.

• Malik Beasley 4-12
• Jamal Murray: 1-8
• Juancho Hernangomez 6-7
• Monte Morris 3-5
• Trey Lyles 0-3
• Torrey Craig 2-3

Besides the five giveaways, Jokic played the Spurs’ constant double teams mostly correct. Denver just missed a ton of open looks.

“He’s got to understand how he’s being played. I think that’s probably the biggest frustration tonight,” Malone said. “Every time he put the ball down, they were coming. And the turnovers, that was probably more frustrating than the lack of shooting. I trust Nikola. If he thinks he’s open, he’s going to shoot it. If he doesn’t think it’s open, he’s going to make a play for somebody and he’s been doing that since we’ve had all three starters out.”

4. Denver got a great showing from Hernangomez, who broke out of a 5-22 slump from beyond the arc to drain six triples and tie his career high with 27 points, but could have used more from Murray. The third-year point guard is having a nightmare of a season shooting the ball and his struggles continued in San Antonio. Murray hit just 4 of 19 shots from the floor and finished a team-worst minus-20 in 27 minutes.

Murray is shooting only 41.8 percent of his field goal attempts and is converting on just 28.5 percent from three, a worse mark than embattled Philadelphia 76ers point guard Markelle Fultz is shooting from distance this season

“Hopefully they start to fall. For the most part, I thought he had pretty good looks. Some were wide open,” Malone said. “He just kept on hitting front rim. A lot of front rims. So hopefully he’ll get his legs back and maybe he’ll make some of those moving forward.”

5. Aside from Hernangomez, who also tallied 13 rebounds, and Malik Beasley (22 points), Morris was Denver’s other standout performer on the offensive end. He sunk a trio of threes and is now shooting 45.8 percent from beyond the arc this year. After hitting around 33 percent of his threes in the G League last ear, Morris reworked his jumper this summer, shooting thousands of shots throughout the offseason and working closely with the Nuggets’ player development staff to minimize the impact his guide hand has on his shot.

Morris’ technique, which you’ve surely heard or read by now if you’ve perused BSN Denver this season, was to position his left thumb and index finger on his guide hand close enough together while shooting so that he could hold a gum wrapper between the two.

I’d say its paid off. Through 32 games, Morris is Denver’s most-deadly three-point shooter.

6. Here’s one stat that tells you where tonight’s game was lost: Denver hit more threes (18) than twos (17). The Nuggets shot just 14-38 from the paint. Morris was 1-6 from the paint and Murray was just 2-6. The two combined to shoot 3-10 from midrange too.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

7. Give credit to Denver’s reserve unit of Beasley, Craig, Tyler Lydon, Thomas Welsh and Brandon Goodwin, who made the Spurs sweat down the stretch after Denver’s regulars suffered through a three-plus minute scoring drought and let San Antonio rattle off a 15-point run in the middle of the fourth quarter.

The Nuggets eventually trimmed San Antonio’s margin to five points with 40 seconds remaining. It was too little too late, however.

8. The Spurs beat the Nuggets for the 12th-straight time and the two teams meet again in 48 hours at Pepsi Center as Denver hopes to end its sudden two-game slide. The Nuggets could use Will Barton, Gary Harris or Paul Millsap back in the lineup, all of whom are inching closer and closer to a return.