How Victor Wembanyama creates NBA-wide sense of urgency from Doncic to Giannis<\/a><\/p>\nThe Spurs saw their season\u2019s longest winning streak snapped despite 20 points and nine assists from\u00a0Stephon Castle and 18 points apiece from Julian Champagnie and Devin Vassell.<\/p>\n
The loss all but mathematically assures the Spurs will remain in the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference, unable to catch Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
The victory, the Nuggets\u2019 50th of the season, pushed Denver within half a game of the hobbled Los Angeles Lakers in third.<\/p>\n
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If the Nuggets are able to overtake the Lakers, it could create a collision course with the Spurs in the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The teams play one more time in the regular season, an April 12 finale at the Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, left, dunks over Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, right, looks to pass the ball as Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon defends during overtime of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, front, pursues a loose ball with Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun in the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, left, looks to pass the ball as San Antonio Spurs forward Julian Champagnie defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, left, drives past San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, back right, argues for a call after being hit in the nose as assistant coach J.J. Barea, back left, intercedes with referees Ray Acosta, front left, and Josh Tiven in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, back, greets teammates before an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox, left, drives to the rim past Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, front right, and forward Aaron Gordon in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell, right, shoots over Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun (0) and center Nikola Jokic in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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The San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, left, and the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic (15) come down hard during the first half at Ball Arena on Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post\/TNS)<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama reacts after being called for a foul late in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, pulls in a rebound next to Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, left, drives under San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama in the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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Denver Nuggets guard Bruce Brown reacts after getting hurt while driving to the basket in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
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Denver Nuggets guard Bruce Brown, left, reacts after being injured while driving past San Antonio Spurs forward Luke Kornet in the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
David Zalubowski\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Here are three takeaways from Saturday\u2019s loss, which denied the Spurs their first shot at 60 wins this season:<\/p>\n
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1. This could be must-see TV come May<\/p>\n
Saturday marked the first time this season Wembanyama and Jokic shared the floor together.<\/p>\n
The chess match that ensued was like Garry\u00a0Kasparov vs. Bobby Fischer.<\/p>\n
Jokic would figure out a way to get a hook shot off over Wembanyama. Wembanyama would adjust and block it the next time. Jokic would find a counter. Wembanyama would find a counter to the counter.<\/p>\n
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Jokic ended up calling checkmate, hitting a high-arching \u201cSombor Shuffle\u201d fadeaway shot over Wembanyama to give Denver a 133-129 edge with a minute to go in OT.<\/p>\n
The two All-Star centers are morphing into must-see TV whenever they are on the floor together.<\/p>\n
A seven-game series of this might be the leading cause of heart attacks in the San Antonio and Denver metro areas come May.<\/p>\n
2. Spurs will need a better Fox in playoffs<\/p>\n
Despite a dip in scoring numbers,\u00a0De\u2019Aaron Fox has been all the Spurs have wanted and more this season.<\/p>\n
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Saturday, however, was not his best game of the season.<\/p>\n
Fox finished 7 of 19 from the floor for 14 points, and committed a pair of turnovers.<\/p>\n
One of the\u00a0NBA\u2019s most notable clutch players, Fox was also responsible for a pair of crushing offensive possessions late.<\/p>\n
One came with the Spurs ahead by two and 8 seconds to go with the shot clock winding down. Fox couldn\u2019t find daylight to the basket, briefly ended up losing track of the ball and had to fire up a deep contested 3-pointer at the shot clock horn that missed everything.<\/p>\n
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Later in OT, the Spurs had a 2-on-1 fast break going for the tie, but Fox\u00a0misconnected\u00a0with Vassell on an alley-oop attempt. Fox corralled the rebound, but missed a short open jumper.<\/p>\n
Jokic followed with a floater to push Denver\u2019s lead back to four with 9.8 seconds to go.<\/p>\n
Fox has been good for the Spurs this season. He will need to be better in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
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Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, right, pulls in a loose ball as San Antonio Spurs forward Julian Champagnie defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n
David Zalubowski\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
3. Spurs crown a new 3-point king<\/p>\n
Champagnie came into the game needing six 3-pointers to break the Spurs\u2019 single-season 3-point record.<\/p>\n
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He needed overtime, but he got it.<\/p>\n
Having gone 5 for 7 from beyond the arc through regulation,\u00a0Champagnie swished his first look of OT to give him 192 for the season.<\/p>\n
That inched him atop the Spurs\u2019 3-point\u00a0leaderboard ahead of Danny Green, who made 191 in 2014-15.<\/p>\n
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The timing of\u00a0Champagnie\u2019s record-breaker is interesting enough.<\/p>\n
Monday, he will play his first game as the Spurs\u2019 newly crowned 3-point king against Philadelphia, the team that waived him in February 2022 and paved his way to come to San Antonio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, left, reels back after getting hit by Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-235723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}