Second quarter turnovers doom Denver Nuggets in 101-86 loss to San Antonio Spurs

The Nuggets clawed and scratched throughout the game, but couldn’t overcome their sloppy second quarter as they fell to the Spurs 101-86 on Saturday night in San Antonio. Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili took the night off, but the Spurs got plenty of production from the rest of their stable of stars and role-players to keep the Nuggets at bay, after a scrappy first quarter for both teams.

When/Where

Saturday, Dec. 26, 2015 at AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

Free Points

The Nuggets’ trend of allowing way more points off of turnovers than they get continued tonight, and was really the only reason the Spurs were able to put this game out of reach so quickly. Other than turnovers, the box score looked relatively even across the board for most of the game, so it’s pretty easy to see where the problem was.

Just as, if not more, disturbing than the turnovers themselves, is the fact that the Nuggets transition defense and offense continues to be an Achilles heel and has shown little improvement throughout the first part of the season. For a team with very little margin for error, especially when taking on the cream of the crop in the NBA, taking care of the ball needs to be the No. 1 priority.

Parker Finds His Groove

Tony Parker struggled on Christmas night, but was able to find his game in the second quarter after getting pulled for Patty Mills halfway through the first. The Nuggets were daring Parker to take his jumper by going under on screens, but Parker made them pay after hitting a couple open shots, including his only 3-point attempt of the night.

Battle of the Bigs

The Nuggets frontcourt put up a solid effort against the Tim Duncan-less Spurs early on, but it didn’t take long for Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich to go to his biggest bench player, the 7-foot-3-inch and 290 pound Boban Marjanovic, who immediately caused all sorts of problems for Darrell Arthur and Nikola Jokic. Denver’s duo couldn’t keep him out of the paint, or off of the glass on either end of the court. Jokic found some success in the fourth quarter running past Marjanovic on pick and rolls and hanging out on the perimeter, but there’s no question the big guy changed the complexion of the game when he entered in the first half.

Star of the Game

Nikola Jokic was one of only two Nuggets with a positive +/- tonight (the other being Darrell Arthur) and continued his stretch of torrid play against the Spurs. He scored 22 points on a 3-pointer, pick-and-rolls, post moves and also managed to pick up 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot. After picking up 23 points and 12 rebounds in the last game against the Spurs, it’s clear Nikola likes this matchup.

Play of the Game

Will Barton had his share of highlights again and Kostas Papanikolaou had a nice steal leading to a layup at the other end, but it was Nikola’s night tonight, so I’m going with this scoop shot leading to an and-1.

Turning Point

Tony Parker picked off a sloppy pass by Gary Harris and took it in for an easy layup at the other end with 4:20 left in the second quarter marking the two elements of the Spurs ability to pull away tonight: making easy shots and the Spurs capitalizing on Denver turnovers.

By the Numbers

While the turnovers were the difference in the game tonight, the Nuggets did manage to go the entire second half without allowing another point off of a turnover despite racking up five more turnovers total (only one in the fourth quarter). The Spurs were also able to start knocking down 3-pointers in the second half, finishing 7-10 from downtown, which limited Denver’s ability to make a real run to get back into the game.

Quote of the Game

“You cannot beat yourself against the San Antonio Spurs.” – Head Coach Michael Malone, referring to the 10 turnovers leading to 18 first half points for the Spurs

Lasting Impact

The Nuggets played well despite the final score and won’t have any time to feel sorry for themselves as the have match-ups against the Thunder and Cavaliers up next on the schedule. If they can limit the damage of opposing team’s centers, the Nuggets young big guys have shown some flashes of brilliance recently, and it just makes it more exciting to think about the impending return of fan-favorite Jusuf Nurkic.

If the Nuggets can steal one of the next two games against top-notch opponents, it will keep them in good position to hang around and challenge for the 8th seed in the West.

Next up

Sunday, Dec. 27th @ Oklahoma City

The Denver Nuggets will head to Oklahoma City and take on a Thunder team that suffered a frustrating loss to the Chicago Bulls on Christmas day.