DeMar DeRozan leads San Antonio Spurs to victory over Denver Nuggets
Thursday 27 December 2018 08:07, UK
DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 27 as the San Antonio Spurs played their best basketball in the fourth quarter while defeating the visiting Denver Nuggets 111-103 on Wednesday night.
Denver led 80-79 after two free throws by Malik Beasley with 9:44 to play before the Spurs fashioned a 15-0 run, with three-pointers by Marco Belinelli beginning and capping the spurt, to run past the Nuggets.
San Antonio ran their advantage to as many as 18 points and had more than enough to hold off a late Denver run.
The Spurs jumped back on the winning track after a loss at Houston on December 22 and have won eight of their past 10 games.
Bryn Forbes scored 15 points for San Antonio, and Belinelli added 12 points off the bench. Jakob Poeltl led the Spurs with 11 rebounds.
Juancho Hernangomez poured in a career-high 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Nuggets. Beasley added 22 points, with Monte Morris hitting for 15 and Torrey Craig contributing 10 points. Nikola Jokic led both teams with 10 assists.
The loss was Denver's second straight after a four-game winning streak; it's just the fourth time this season the Nuggets have dropped back-to-back games.
San Antonio led 34-26 after the first quarter and by five points after an Aldridge putback with 5:05 remaining in the second quarter made it 45-40. But the Nuggets reeled off 10-0 run, capped by a pair of free throws from Hernangomez with 3:06 to play in the period and lead 50-45.
The Spurs tied the game at 53 on Aldridge's layup with 35 seconds left in the period before a DeRozan jumper with seven seconds to play gave San Antonio a 55-53 advantage at half-time.
Aldridge led all scorers in the half with 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting, while DeRozan added 14 over the first two periods for the Spurs, who shot 53 per cent from the floor in the half.
Hernangomez paced the Nuggets with 15 points over the first half, with Morris adding 11 off the bench for Denver. The Nuggets hit just 18 of their 48 shots before half-time, but 10 of those were from beyond the arc, which allowed them to stay in the game.
Aldridge and Hernangomez scored nine points each in the third quarter, which ended with the Spurs leading 77-75.
The two teams will have an immediate rematch, playing each other again in the early hours of Saturday morning in Denver, a game you can see live on Sky Sports Action at 2am.
Sky Sports is the home of the NBA in the UK with live coverage throughout the week, including selected live games free to all Sky subscribers via Sky Sports Mix. www.skysports.com/nba will be your home for news, reports, video and features throughout the season while you can follow us @SkySportsNBA
