Shorthanded and breathing thin air, Spurs find their way to play-in berth

San Antonio continued its best stretch of basketball this season with a win in Denver despite the absence of Dejounte Murray.

This was not the kind of game the Spurs would’ve won a couple of months ago.

As a heavy underdog in the sportsbooks, playing without an ill Dejounte Murray in the thin air of Denver, against a Nuggets team fighting to avoid the play-in tournament and secure a playoff berth, San Antonio played like a team that’s been in situations like this before.

But it hasn’t — not this group. Some of these guys have had a taste of the play-in tournament and even the postseason, but not as the leaders of their own pack. This is new territory, and with a 116-97 win over Denver (and a Lakers 121-110 loss in Phoenix), the Spurs have earned their entry to the play-in party, which begins April 12.

San Antonio’s entire season has ridden the slope of a long and unpredictable learning curve. For months, following blowout losses, close calls, games they should’ve won or leads they should’ve held, Gregg Popovich has reiterated from time to time that “the worm will turn.” At some point his young team would figure out what it takes to win consistently in the NBA, but it would require some patience.

On Tuesday night, all the bugaboos that have haunted San Antonio and tested that patience this season reared their ugly heads, only for the Spurs to play a nearly flawless game of whack-a-mole.

• Jakob Poeltl picked up two fouls in the first 90 seconds of the game, leaving an opening for the Nuggets to potentially jump out in front and take early momentum. Bad first quarters have tormented San Antonio at times this season, but on this night it responded well to win the period and the first stretch of those critical Nikola Jokic minutes for Denver.

• Struggling to close out quarters and halves has been a common killer of momentum in countless games for the Spurs — stretches of good basketball undone by an inability to maintain composure and efficiency. Not in this one. As the Nuggets threatened to whittle into a 14-point San Antonio lead in the final two minutes of the first half, the Spurs responded with three consecutive made baskets and three made free throws to boot. The lead grew to 20 points and San Antonio gave itself a cushion, one that would prove to be much-needed.

• Most young, inexperienced teams are susceptible to giving up early leads, and the Spurs have not been an exception. Denver came out of halftime with firecrackers up their shorts, ratcheting up the physicality on San Antonio ball-handlers, running it down their throats on the other end, and keeping the Spurs continuously balancing on their heels. A 20-point lead was sliced in half within the first six minutes of the third quarter and would eventually be cut down to four points in the early stages of the fourth. But San Antonio remained patient. They withstood the Nuggets’ burst of energy, continued to probe the Denver defense with pick-and-rolls, dribble-penetration and kick-outs for 3-pointers, and most importantly, they hit big shots. They absorbed an entire round of body blows, but every time the Nuggets looked like they might break the levee, a Spur found a way to put the ball in the basket. When the pressure is cranked up and the offense struggles to get good looks in this sport, sometimes you just need someone — anyone — to hit a shot.

San Antonio came in mentally prepared, executed its game plan and got contributions across the board in the absence of its best player.

Tre Jones slithered in and out of space and burst through gaps all night, making big play after big play on his way to 15 points and 10 assists; Keldon Johnson wasn’t very sharp from the perimeter (2-for-7), but he was once again a force around the rim (6-for-8) as he hit the 20-point mark for the seventh consecutive game; and the duo of Devin Vassell and Josh Richardson combined for 38 points and went 8-for-11 from behind the arc, making up for Johnson’s perimeter struggles.

But the big-man battle was the focal point in this one, as both Jakob Poeltl and Zach Collins knew from the start the game plan called for them to spend the evening left alone on Jokic island. If you follow the rest of the NBA regularly, you know by now how daunting that must sound; but for the more casual fan: The idea of defending the reigning MVP one-on-one for an entire game is nightmare fuel. He can stuff you in the basket, break out spin moves no man that size should be able to perform with such quickness, dominate the glass, and facilitate for an entire offense from anywhere on the court at all times. He’s simply impossible to stop.

The Spurs’ approach was simple, however — at least on paper.

“If he scored 50 we didn’t care, but he’s just too damn smart. You start double-teaming him, then you wonder, ‘When do we do it? Do you do it on the dribble? Here? There?’” Popovich said. “Then he just eats you alive, and everybody else starts participating. So we just decided we’d go with it, and we did it for the whole 48 (minutes) instead of going back and forth and being confused all night. So I think it worked out for us.”

Jokic went for 41 points and 17 rebounds — a preposterous stat line for a mere mortal, but one he can drop on your head on any given night. In this game, however, Pop’s plan worked. Aaron Gordon scored 18 points but was the only other player in double-figures for the Nuggets. The team shot 7-for-33 from the 3-point line and could not seem to get anyone else going, as San Antonio defenders stayed home on their assignments instead of digging down and helping on Jokic.

“I think that kind of played into our game plan. Normally, I thought, you have to trap him because he’s the MVP,” said Richardson, who decided to double Jokic at one point in the first half, which led to a 3-pointer from Monte Morris. “That’s a play you can’t give up, so we cleared it up at halftime. I think the guys did a good job of being disciplined on our matchups and not getting sucked into (double-teaming Jokic).”

In the end, it’s only one game. The Spurs have earned a spot in the play-in tournament, but their season is unlikely to extend too far beyond that with the real conference heavyweights lurking on the other side should they reach the playoffs. But Tuesday night’s win was meaningful, nonetheless.

The 2021-22 campaign has been about progress, development and experience for San Antonio, and through all the rough patches and across the unfamiliar ground that comes with being a losing team in this city, the Spurs have shown they have the roots to grow something new. As multiple teams in both conferences engage in a tank-your-brains-out competition of ineptitude, and the Los Angeles Lakers prepare to perform an autopsy on their comically disastrous season, San Antonio has chosen to take the route of trying like hell to win and building upon the foundation it has in place.

There will be a lot of work to do this offseason, but that comes later. Right now, the Spurs are focused on what’s directly in front of them.

“We’re just playing every game,” Pop said when asked about his team’s chances to clinch the play-in berth. “It’s the old trite thing: We’ve got a game on Thursday, and we’re going to play that and not worry about anything else.

“It’s not like we’re world-beaters.”

San Antonio might not be ready to take on the world just yet, but all it needed to do Tuesday was beat Denver and ask the basketball gods take care of business in Phoenix.

Mission accomplished, and prayers answered.