The NBA Cup allows teams to experience playoff-level intensity early in the season and the Spurs rose to the occasion tonight against the Nuggets in Denver. Nikola Jokic had a below average night scoring the ball but impacted the game in every other way, with a triple double as he helped Jamal Murray to a 32 point game and Cam Johnson to 28. The Spurs overcame the scoring onslaught from the Nuggets with a 35 point outburst from Devin Vassell and 25 points from Julian Champagnie. DeAaron didn’t score as many points as he usually does, but he was instrumental to the win with 12 assists. The Spurs had only 8 turnovers and the Nuggets had 16, which helped the Silver and Black overcome a 44-35 rebounding deficit. The Spurs were down at one point in the third quarter by 18 points, and they fought back to almost even it up going into the fourth. Both teams were missing some key players, but it was still an impressive achievement for the Spurs to take a game from the Nuggets in Denver without their best player and Stephon Castle, who has been a key player on both ends of the court so far this season.
Well, that’s it for the group stage of the NBA Cup. The Spurs travel to Minnesota to play the Timberwolves on Sunday, then return home for a single home game against the Grizzlies on Tuesday. They go back on the road for three games in the next week, against the Magic, Cavs, and Pelicans on December 8, which happens to be my birthday. What currently looks like an open week in the schedule after that is the dates that the league is holding open until the NBA Cup knockout tournament is set. The Spurs will play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, December 10. If they win the first game, they will play in the second round on Saturday the 13th in Las Vegas. The winners of the semifinals will get an additional game [which won’t count in the standings] on Tuesday, December 16. On December 17, almost everybody will have forgotten about the Cup, especially the curmudgeon class at Pounding the Rock, who never liked it in the first place.
