How the Spurs plan to manage Wembanyama’s ‘angry’ ankle for the playoffs<\/a><\/p>\nThe Spurs went ahead by 26 points one possession into the second half, eventually improving to 21-0 this season when leading by at least 25.<\/p>\n
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Even without Wembanyama, the NBA’s presumptive Defensive Player of the Year, the Spurs made the Clippers their third opponent in five games to fail to reach 100 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very satisfying effort by a lot of people on our team,\u201d coach\u00a0Mitch Johnson said.<\/p>\n
For the Spurs, it wasn\u2019t just a victory.<\/p>\n
It was the kind of outing that might be remembered by both teams should they meet again in 2 \u00bd weeks.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou try to have as many statement wins as you can,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s game was one. Now, the Spurs head to Denver with a chance to earn another one.<\/p>\n
By record, the 49-28 Nuggets are the best team remaining on the Spurs\u2019 schedule. They face Denver twice over the final five games \u2014 once Saturday and once in the regular-season finale April 12 in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson celebrates after scoring during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle, below, shoots as Los Angeles Clippers forward John Collins defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson celebrates after scoring during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson gestures during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle, below, shoots as Los Angeles Clippers forward John Collins defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/Associated Press![\"Los]()
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Los Angeles Clippers guard Jordan Miller, top, takes a loose ball away from San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/Associated Press![\"Los]()
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Los Angeles Clippers center Brook Lopez, left, reaches in on San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
The Nuggets have only had their power trio of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon healthy for 23 games this season. Denver is 17-6 in those contests.<\/p>\n
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All three are expected to be available Saturday. Of course, so too is Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
The Spurs have shown they can win without the 7-foot-4 force of nature, going 11-5 in his absence this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we weren\u2019t going to have big fella (Thursday), so we knew we needed to stay extra sharp,\u201d Keldon Johnson said. \u201cA lot of guys stepped up and had big moments and big plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Mitch Johnson, the touchstones over the final two weeks of the season will not sound much different than what they were when all of this began in October.<\/p>\n
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He will stress attention to detail in the game plan, transition defense, rebounding, playing with intention and pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a good year being us, but it\u2019s still our first journey,\u201d Mitch Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to become some exotic version of what we were a few months ago. We just want to continue to be a better version of what we were yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Spurs accomplish that, many of their other goals will fall into place.<\/p>\n
With a win Saturday in Denver, the Spurs can post their longest winning streak of an already surprising season.\u00a0They would also ring up their 60th victory of the season, a goal that even a month ago might have felt like lunacy.<\/p>\n
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The Spurs\u2019 most recent 60-win season came in 2016-17. The club record of 67 wins, set in 2015-16, is mathematically out of reach.<\/p>\n
But, if the Spurs are able to run the table over the final five games, they would wind up with 64 wins, the second-most in franchise annals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, why not?\u201d Champagnie said.<\/p>\n
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After a season spent clearing bars only to set new ones, what is one more?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle dunks during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-583523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}