Replayables: Nuggets vs Spurs
April 4, 2026
“What a treat for the fans both in this building and anyone watching. You CANNOT see a better basketball game than that.”
Normally for these Replayables I rewatch an old game, hand out awards for various performances - some serious, but mostly silly - using it as an opportunity to relive classic moments in NBA history. Well, we had an instant classic in Denver last week, and I was lucky enough to be in attendance. According to Stan Van Gundy, in that quote above, my first Nuggets home game was as good as it gets. So good that today, just a week later, I’m replaying Nikola Jokić vs Victor Wembanyama, Denver Nuggets vs San Antonio Spurs in Ball Arena.
🏀 If you missed the last few Replayables, catch up on the 2010 Nuggets vs Lakers featuring Carmelo vs Kobe and the 1995 Lakers vs Sonics first round playoff matchup in Tacoma. 🏀
The Set Up
Here’s how play-by-play commentator Michael Grady welcomed viewers to the broadcast: “We’re in Denver, Colorado for a high-level, elite showdown between two of, not just the best teams in the NBA, but two of the best players.”
Starting with the teams, this game featured two of the top three in the Western Conference, and two of the favorites to host a parade with the Larry O’Brien trophy when the season is said and done. With fewer than five games to go, the two-seed Spurs had already built an insurmountable lead over the four-seed Nuggets, but both teams still had plenty to play for. The Spurs maintained a chance to catch and surpass the Oklahoma City Thunder for best in the West, as improbable as it seemed when OKC started the season 24-1. Meanwhile Denver was fighting off the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, and Minnesota Timberwolves to maintain a top-four seed and home court advantage in the first round of the Playoffs.
Of course, the game also featured the second and third favorites for MVP, in Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama. I’d been worried for months, since I bought the tickets in January, that one or both of these superstars wouldn’t play. The last Nuggets game I saw in person turned out to be Aaron Gordon vs the Bucks, as Denver sat almost all of their stars.
While I was still knocking on all the wood I could find, my worries started to abate as gameday approached and neither Wemby nor Jokić had reached the 65-game minimum for post-season award eligibility. Real stakes for the team, real stakes for the players, everything was set up for an amazing matchup. There were still a couple of game-time decisions, and Peyton Watson was sidelined with a hamstring injury, but all the main guys suited up.
Both teams came into this game playing their best basketball of the season. The Spurs were winners of 11 straight games, and 27 of their last 29 going all the way back to the beginning of February. The Nuggets floundered in February and early-March, but had steadied and were on their own seven-game win streak coming into this matchup.
Personally, I had spent February about as far from Ball Arena as humanly possible, exploring the southern coast of Western Australia.1 It was a long road to Denver, flying from Perth to Sydney to Auckland to San Francisco, resting a day, then continuing on to upstate New York for a wedding shower. From there my fiancé Ellen and I drove across the country, passing through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri,2 Kansas,3 and finally Denver, Colorado where I was hosting my bachelor party. My soon-to-be brother-in-law Jack Dollard, noted Nuggets fan and prior Replayables guest, was in town for the party, the perfect person to watch this game with.
It was an epic game. Wemby blocked Jokić; Jokić scored on Wemby. Castle threw “Area 51” alley-oops to Wemby; Jokić threw “dunker spot” alley-oops to Gordon. Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie couldn’t miss from three to start the game; Christian Braun and Cam Johnson hit timely threes down the stretch. The Spurs went up by double-digits multiple times, as late as the fourth quarter, but the Nuggets kept coming back, finally taking the lead with just 3:30 left in the game. Aaron Gordon gave us five minutes of free basketball with three straight defensive stops plus a dunk and ultimately the Nuggets pulled out a much-needed, clutch win for the hometown fans.
Let’s replay some of the best moments from Ball Arena.
The Replayables
The Most 2026 Thing About this Game
Jokić and Wemby being the current and future best players in the world. Absolutely absurd performances from these two:
Jokić: 40 points, 8 rebounds, 13 assists, 3 blocks, and 0 turnovers
Wemby: 34 points, 18(!) rebounds, 7 assists, 5 blocks, and a steal
Some other, honorable mentions:
Wemby, a third-year player, already getting Shai-level treatment from the referees: The fans4 were shouting “refs you suck” all game, so fed up that the chants even picked up after referee Nate Green overturned Josh Tiven’s call, in favor of the Nuggets. Overall Wemby shot 17 free throws and, to his credit, made 16 of them. Three of those free attempts came in a bunch, after Wemby punched Jokić in the nose and, incensed, two Nuggets got called for technicals while another Nugget committed a transition take foul to give a bleeding Jokić time to get up.5 Even the announcers had no idea what was going on.
Full court pressure: Stephon Castle picked Jamal Murray up from 94-feet on defense from the opening basket. The full-court pressure the Pacers employed en route to last year’s NBA Finals has been copied by many teams, especially the ones with young, athletic Guards like the Spurs. It backfired a bit as Castle picked up two fouls in the first two-minutes of the game and got switched off his assignment, but in the long-term it worked as Murray was held to a pedestrian 15 points.
High scoring: The score after one quarter was 43-36. 79 combined first quarter points. 13 first quarter threes. That’s the Denver Nuggets #1 offense and #21 defense for you.
Most Replayable Play
Looots of options here. If you don’t like watching highlights of incredible athletes do incredible things on a basketball court, feel free to move on to the next, Detlef-Schrempf inspired category. Everyone else, enjoy …
Jokić treating Victor Wembanyama like any other defender early on.
Jokić showing why he’s the best defensive rebounder in the NBA.
Wemby throwing passes on time, on target that a 7’4” human should not be able to throw.
Dylan Harper disrespecting (and gaining the respect of) his elders on a drive to the basket.
Michael Grady saying this about Harrison Barnes: “One of the senior citizens on this Spurs squad with a youthful move at the rim.” Barnes is 33.
Jokić figuring out how long Wemby’s arms are, but it not mattering anyway.
“Area 51” alley-oops.
Murray saving the ball from going out of bounds, then disappearing into the crowd for a solid six seconds.
Nuggets ball movement.
Jokić adjusting to exactly how long Wemby’s arms are, and sealing the game.
Those are all tremendous plays, certainly deserving of most replayable in most basketball games. If I ever did anything close to any of these moves on a basketball court, I would retire on the spot, knowing I could never recreate it again. But, in my mind, these weren’t even amongst the top three best plays in this game. Those would be:
The Jokic-to-Gordon alley-oop to tie the game. David Adelman drew up the perfect after-timeout action, knowing Mitch Johnson’s Spurs would double Jokić leaving Gordon wide open under the basket for an uncontested dunk. But, the reason this play is only number three is that it was too good; it tied the game with six seconds on the clock, plenty of time for the Spurs to get a good look on the other end and win.
Jokić’s fade-away elbow jumper over Victor Wembanyama that won the game for the Nuggets. If Wemby can’t block a shot no one can, and he couldn’t quite get to this one. Michael Grady’s and Stan Van Gundy’s reactions say it all.
Ok, Jokić’s “RIDICULOUS” fade-away was actually the most replayed on social media, and was probably the best play of the game. My personal favorite though, was Cam Johnson going defense to offense.
Cam Johnson has had a trying season. When the Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. for him, he was expected to be the missing piece needed to get Denver back to the mountaintop. Never mind that the underlying rationale for the trade was offloading Porter Jr.’s contract to open up cap space that the Nuggets used to sign Jonas Valančiūnas and Tim Hardaway Jr. Johnson was expected to be better than Michael Porter Jr right away. He started the season in a shooting slump,6 injured his shooting shoulder a few weeks in, and wasn’t aggressive enough driving the ball7 leading some to view the trade as a downgrade in Denver.
So for him to make this play - poking the ball away from Dylan Harper, leading the fast break, and taking the ball all the way to the hoop - that brought the Nuggets within two and forced San Antonio to call a timeout, was awesome.
Detlef Schrempf Award for Best Name
Candidates:
Victor Wembanyama. The coolness of his name (and the Wemby nickname) may get a bit lost with how much we say it, but it shouldn’t. It’s a very cool name. And I’m happy that it’s easier to spell than Antentokoumpo.
Stephon Castle. It feels like there’s a better nickname than “King of the Castle”, which is the only one listed on his Basketball Reference page. ”Area 51” is great for his partnership with Wemby, but what about when he does things on his own?!
Bismack Biyombo. I’m a sucker for alliteration, but Biyombo got a DNP so he’s eliminated.
Christian Braun. JK, what a bad way to spell “brown”, especially when Bruce Brown is sitting right there.
And the winner is … Stephon Castle.
‘Boom Goes the Dynamite’ Award for Best Announcer Call
While I didn’t know it at the time in the arena, this game was broadcast on Amazon Prime, with Michael Grady on the play-by-play, Stan Van Gundy on color, and Cassidy Hubbarth on the sidelines. All three are top-notch, so it was extra fun to rewatch this game with their analysis and banter. Here were some of their best calls.
SVG arguing Jokić’s MVP case: “Jokić’s gonna become the first guy in NBA history to lead the league in assists and rebounds. That’s absurd. That’s absurd to do that. And average 28 at the same time?!” Preach Stan, preach!
SVG on Jokić and Wemby flopping: “Not only are they contending for the MVP, these two ‘stars’ are contending for the Academy Awards.”
Grady on Bruce Brown: “Tremendous mustache. Tremendous bucket”
SVG: “This is the best game I’ve seen in a loooong time Michael.” I picked a good time to make my first visit to Ball Arena.
What Memorabilia from this Game Would You Want?
I actually had a chance to get some memorabilia from this game, but distracted by the high I was on after the Nuggets win, I walked out of the stadium with nothing but these reusable aluminum cups emblazoned with Ball Arena on them.8 Oh, and memories I’ll cherish for a lifetime I suppose.
If I could have taken some other, unreasonable souvenirs, they’d be Wemby’s size 21 bright orange shoes and the 50-foot tall triangular poster of Jamal Murray.
Coldplay Cam Award for Best Jumbotron Moment
League Pass shows some jumbotron moments, but usually cuts away too quickly to get the full story. Being in the stadium meant I got to see it all, including this baby race that went off the rails.
The winning baby flew-crawled off the line, but weaved hard right, going to a random Mom rather than their own. The crowd was enthralled.
Later in the game, Rocky, the Denver Nugget’s mascot, sank his signature over-the-head half-court shot on the first try, then three tween-age girls won a gift card to a steak house for picking the right cup in the shell game and the Dad, who will most likely be the one using said gift card, was ecstatic.
Oh, and there was a (successful) marriage proposal as well.
Daniel Radcliffe ‘Alphabet Aerobics’ Award for Most Unexpected Performance
This one isn’t unexpected - the guy is averaging 28 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists on the season for goodness sake - but I was surprised to see Jokić ended up with a 40-piece by the time the game wrapped. It was one of the quietest 40-point, Belgrade-doubles9 I’ve ever seen.
Relatedly, at one point in the game the jumbotron flashed Jokić’s offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) and it was something like 174. Meanwhile, Wemby’s defensive rating was 113, surprisingly low given he played 40 minutes and the Nuggets scored 136 points.
De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Keldon Johnson combined to miss 16 threes and make 0. These Spurs Guards aren’t known as great shooters, but statistically you’d have expected 5 or 6 of those 16 hoists to go in. The rest of the Spurs shot over 50% though.
Tyus Jones posted the fabled 2-trillion. Two minutes played, zero stats recorded. No points. No rebounds. No assists. Not even a shot, steal, block, turnover, or foul. He had the seventh highest plus-minus in the game though.
Jamal Murray attempted 0 free throws. Last time he faced the Spurs he went 15 for 15 at the line.
JaVale McGee Award for Unintentional Comedy
This one requires a quick story from the upper bowl. Toward the end of overtime, when it seemed like Denver was going to squeak out this win, a Nuggets fan entered my section to talk (friendly) trash to the Spurs fans in attendance.10 He went through the usual claims: Jokić is the best player in the world, Wemby gets away with fouls, the Spurs can’t shoot, etc. etc. But then he brought up the teams’ championship histories. Now sure, the Nuggets have won more recently, in 2023, but that was the first in the franchise’s history. Meanwhile the Spurs have won 5 titles since 1999. Not the best argument, and when the Nuggets guy was escorted from the section, I told the Spurs fan as much. He misheard “bad argument” for “bandwagoner” though, and looked like he was ready to square up!
Elsewhere in the stands, Jokić’s (very scary, very ginormous) brother was caught on camera yelling at Spurs fans who were claiming Jokić flopped on the plays where he got punched in the nose and forearm chopped in the throat. He is the absolute last guy I would want to see square up.
There was also some comedy on the court:
The Nuggets dance team left a big “HOW LOUD CAN YOU GET?” sign in the middle of the court and no one noticed for an entire play, during which Tim Hardaway Jr. drilled a three.11
6’0” Tyus Jones had to do a jump ball against 7’1” Luke Kornet. He lost.
If it wasn’t clear, this was a terrific game. I hope you enjoyed watching live and/or reliving it here. It makes me so excited for the playoff basketball coming just around the corner! I’ll be covering throughout June, so be sure to subscribe to get Charting Hoops in your inbox weekly.
I just read a book set in Northwest New South Wales. Australian place names are great.
Hi Christian Braun!
Not me, of course.
Ok, I may have yelled at the refs after this.
He’s now shooting a career best 43% from three, eighth in the entire NBA.
Or some said, perhaps forgetting the Nuggets offense goes through Jokić and Jamal Murray almost all of the time.
Gifts incoming, Matt and Danny Ball.
A category the Nuggets announcers invented a few years ago, for when Jokić hits double-digits in two categories and eight in a third. One step below a Somber-double (double-digits in two categories and nine in a third.)
Of which there were many. Good on ya Spurs fans.
THJ has the brightest green light to take threes this year, and I love it.