The Spurs topple the Nuggets on the road and clinch West Group C of the NBA Cup race and head to the quarter-finals.
SAN ANTONIO — Without Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle due to injury, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Denver Nuggets 139-136 on the road. Devin Vassell led the team with 35 points (career-high as a Spur) and three rebounds.
Keldon Johnson had 14 and eight rebounds, and Dylan Harper finished with 11 points. De’Aaron Fox scored 15, and Julian Champagnie had 28 and 10 rebounds. Harrison Barnes recorded 10 points and Luke Kornet added 12 points and six rebounds.
The Spurs are 13-5, clinch Group C in the NBA Cup race, head to the NBA Cup quarterfinals to face the Lakers on Dec. 10 in Los Angeles and will next visit the Timberwolves on Sunday.
Here’s a sample of what the Spurs and Nuggets said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“The way that Denver likes to protect the paint, we knew we’d have to get some paint touches, but a lot of times that was going to be a spray out or kick out. So our teammates thought we did a really good job of that when we settled in and played out of our defense.
Champagnie:
“Stops and Devin Vassell. Yeah, it really gets as simple as that. I think the main thing was that we got stops. That was the biggest part of it. If they don’t score and we don’t score, it’s tied. We’re going to overtime to live and fight a couple more minutes. But I think we got stops. We came down, we executed and we capitalized on their mistakes.”
“This is huge. Whether people want to try and downplay it or not, I mean we were in the toughest, I feel like, (NBA Cup) group and to come out. It shows, we don’t have, Steph (Castle), we don’t have Vic (Wembanyama) and we just got (Dylan) Harper back. And I mean just the resilience of the team. Everybody’s stepping up, everybody coming in and having big minutes.”
Coach David Adelman: