The Spurs and Nuggets entered their game against each other on Wednesday as the Western Conference’s 2-7 first-round matchup.

By the end of the evening, though, the Nuggets dropped the Spurs to eighth with a resounding 113-85 win at the Pepsi Center.

San Antonio doesn’t have a lot of positives to take away from this contest. But we’ll examine what this game means for the Spurs with three observations, two questions and one prediction.

3 Observations

Bad off-ball defense lost this game for the Spurs

One single stat told the story of this game.

Assists: Nuggets 41, Spurs 15

San Antonio has allowed 40 assists to an opponent just one other time in the Gregg Popovich era: just two months ago against the Warriors, when the Spurs allowed 42 assists and lost 141-102.

The Spurs moved sluggishly on defense and generally brought zero focus on Wednesday. Defenders away from the ball looked particularly out of it and the Nuggets took advantage with typically crisp passing and off-ball movement.

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Denver is arguably the best passing team in the league, and San Antonio’s poor execution made its opponent look awfully good on offense.

Pop’s ejection was weird

On Wednesday, Gregg Popovich set a record for the quickest recorded ejection in NBA history at just 63 seconds of game time. He was upset about a missed shooting foul on a missed turnaround jumper from LaMarcus Aldridge, and David Guthrie was having none of it.

This ejection was Pop’s second in three games after not recording a single one in the season’s first 76 games.

It was awfully early for so much animation from Pop, and it was also surprising that Guthrie was willing to throw him out so quickly.

Obviously, the Spurs didn’t respond to Pop’s exit very well. If nothing else, the fact that this game wasn’t coached by Popovich means that the Nuggets might have less film to work with if these two teams meet in the first round of the playoffs.

Bryn Forbes is staking his claim as the Spurs’ most reliable shooter

This is more of a reaction to the past month or so than just a one-game observation. For what it’s worth, Forbes did have only seven points in 24 minutes on Wednesday, but he shot 3-of-4 from the field.

Since February 28, Forbes is now shooting 54.1 percent from the field and 49.3 percent from downtown in 17 games for a 67.7 true-shooting percentage. He’s made at least one-third of his threes in all but three of those contests. He’s also a reliable pull-up shooter from midrange when opponents close out on him.

While Davis Bertans, Marco Belinelli and Patty Mills are all strong shooters in their own right, Forbes’ consistency is one thing he has over them. He seems to pop at least two or three jumpers in each game and doesn’t go through many slumps.

Forbes’ future role with the Spurs is still a big question mark, though, mainly because of his defense. BBall Index’s talent grades have him in the 34th and 26th percentile league-wide, respectively, in perimeter and interior defense. He also grades in the 44th percentile or worse as a defensive and offensive rebounder, playmaker and finisher.

It will be interesting to see how Pop and the front office gauge Forbes’ value to the team both in the present and the future.

2 Questions

Is Denver still one of the more favorable matchups for San Antonio?

A couple weeks ago here at BBall Index, I ranked the seven other Western Conference playoff teams by how well the Spurs match up with them.

I had Denver slotted as the third-most favorable matchup, and I’ll mostly stand by the take that the Nuggets are beatable for San Antonio. Between Pop essentially missing this game, the Spurs throwing in the towel very early and terrible San Antonio shooting luck (5-of-27 from three!), this game seemed a bit fluky to me. The Spurs also clearly didn’t bring a playoff mindset into this game. You can read the linked piece for more reasons why I think San Antonio can hang with Denver.

Now, I still wouldn’t pick the Spurs to beat the Nuggets in a seven-game series. They could do it, but the combination of San Antonio’s 14-25 road record and Denver’s 32-7 home record is too much to overlook.

Can the Spurs make a role for Lonnie Walker IV next year?

This was easily Walker’s best game with the Spurs’ main club this season. The 20-year-old rookie registered 16 points in 16 minutes of garbage time and made all three of his three-point attempts.

Watch him show off his mechanically sound shooting stroke and breathtaking explosiveness here.

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Walker has flaws, such as questionable decision-making and underdeveloped playmaking chops, but he still looks like a future NBA rotation player and potentially much more.

The young guard should be ready for consistent minutes in San Antonio next year. Unfortunately, he, DeMar DeRozan, Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, Patty Mills, Bryn Forbes and Marco Belinelli are all scheduled to earn money from the Spurs in 2019-20. I believe there’s a strong likelihood of at least one offseason trade to clear up the logjam on the perimeter.

1 Prediction

The Spurs will go all-out to win each of their final three games

The eighth-seeded Spurs have an easy schedule to end their season. On paper, at least.

The Wizards, Cavaliers and Mavericks are all eliminated from the playoffs and shouldn’t have nearly the incentive to win as the Spurs do. Meanwhile, the seventh-seeded Thunder are one-half game ahead and have the Pistons, Timberwolves, Rockets and Bucks remaining, all teams with better records than any of the Spurs’ opponents.

Despite that, I would still say it’s unlikely that the Spurs will already know their seeding before the final day of the regular season. The Spurs would either have to lose or gain 1.5 games of ground on the Thunder by then to know their slot by that time. Despite OKC’s poor play as of late, I have to think the talented squad will show up with the heightened stakes over the next week.

The difference between the Warriors and (likely) the Nuggets as a first-round matchup is big. San Antonio will be playing its key players the normal amount in order to get the more ideal playoff opponent.

Note: All statistics are from NBA.com, unless otherwise noted. Video clips are from NBA.com, the House of Highlights YouTube account or Fox Sports Southwest.

Photo credit: Bart Young // Getty Images