5 Positives From the Spurs' Loss to the Nuggets

SAN ANTONIO - If the Spurs' loss to the Nuggets left you a little bummed out, you're not alone.

Blowing a 20-point lead is always ugly, especially to a team that played the night before. Sure they've got Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, and sure San Antonio had a Wemby-sized hole in their defense, but Steph Castle was right when he said that the Spurs should've won regardless.

Still, there are plenty of positives that San Antonio can take away from this matchup as they prepare for the postseason.

Steph Castle is Legit

Castle finished the night with a 30-point triple-double. He's spoken about Russell Westbrook as an inspiration, and while his physical downhill driving in this game showed shades of Brodie, his ludicrous efficiency was something else.

The reigning Rookie of the Year scored those 30 points on just 15 field goal attempts, hitting 4-8 from deep and 12-13 from the free throw line that he got to over and over again. He tallied 10 assists to just two turnovers. Coming into the season many people questioned whether he could truly be a point guard in this league. He's answering that question every night, affirmatively and decisively.

But will he ever develop as a reliable outside shooter? Also yes, if recent trends are any indication. Since the start of February, Castle is shooting a smooth 39% on 3.2 attempts per game. Dylan Harper is hitting that same mark on slightly lower volume. Plenty of their teammates are attempting more shots from out there, but if those guys can punish defenses for sagging off or going under screens, it makes them much more complete players and makes the team offense that much more difficult to stop.

"Some of these younger guys, they have so much on their plate to think that they're going to use all these weapons and understand when, why, where, how, when, is a lot to ask," Mitch Johnson said. "I think Steph and Dylan both have done a great job at recognizing where their shots come from, and I think that's been part of the byproduct of their percentage going up recently."

"I think just consistency, just trying to take the right shots, not turning down good ones, and then just trusting the work that myself and my coaches put in," Castle said. "So I feel like our offense is built to create good shots. So taking those shots is not really just for me, it's really shots for our team."

Strong Shooting Continues

Speaking of good outside shooting, the Spurs hit 40.4% from beyond the arc as a team against Denver. This is the first time all season that San Antonio has lost a game where they made 39.5% or more from deep, now 24-1 on the year when they do that.

The range finder was a bit off in January as San Antonio trudged through the dog days and made just 32.4%, but they're trending in the right direction. As a team they made 37.5% in February and 40.2% in March so far. This month they're attempting 41.6 triples per game, their most in any month this season.

"I think our pace has been great, so we're getting probably, I bet, higher shot quality," Mitch Johnson said. "Our offense has continued to clean up in terms of spacing, execution, awareness, and then that typically flows into expectation of where people's shots come from. And you know, we've got good shooters, so when you know your shots are coming from the right places, and our passing is probably improved as well. It's a good recipe to continue to get good, high quality shots."

Mitch Johnson Tried Some Stuff

With Wembanyama on the bench, Mitch Johnson took it as an opportunity to get a little funky. He gave rookie Carter Bryant and veteran Keldon Johnson some opportunities to play small-ball center against the most dangerous offensive center in the world.

The results were mixed, but the experience may prove to be invaluable.

"It's one of the luxuries of having a good team with a lot of good players," Johnson said afterward. "I like the idea of playing small at times, I like the idea playing big at times... We've been traditional this year, so it's going to be something that's going to be discussed amongst the staff. Different games will have different personalities and different matchups and whatnot, but I think we have seen some positivity when we got small at times, and tonight was probably the largest sample size in a given game."

Johnson and Bryant weren't the only small defenders who got a crack at guarding Jokic. With Luke Kornet at center in the late moments, the 6-foot-6 point guard Castle got some reps. He said that some of it was to switch the pick and rolls with Murray.

"That, and we wanted to keep our bigs low too, so putting a guard on him and having our big be a help guy, but yeah, just being able to switch out and keep them from attacking the paint."

It's a strategy that should look even better with Victor Wembanyama roving the back line, which brings us to the next positive.

Wemby Remains a Mystery to Denver

The Nuggets have faced the Spurs twice this season, and they haven't gotten a chance to see San Antonio's MVP candidate yet. The players and coaching staff have a good appreciation for how deep and how offensively talented the Spurs are, but the film from these games won't be super valuable when they have to figure out the game-breaking presence of Wemby. His absence put the Spurs into some situations they weren't as familiar with.

"We were kind of looking around see we were going to get into and I feel like a lot of that plays into him not being on the court," Castle said. "Sometimes he could just create an advantage just by his presence. So obviously we were missing that tonight, so I think it was a good test for us to see for who we could do without him on the court."

Wembanyama said recently that he didn't think he'd need to miss any games down the stretch to rest his legs for the postseason, and he's a competitor who truly wants to be out there, but the extra rest should do him some good and his absence makes the tape somewhat useless for a Denver team that the Spurs will see twice in April and perhaps in a seven-game playoff series.

The Spurs aren't happy that they gave up 81 points in the second half, but they know that it probably won't go down like that with Wembanyama healthy. Johnson said after the game that he didn't view Wemby's sore ankle as a serious concern, and he thinks the big man will be back for Saturday's matinee against the Hornets.

A Good Reminder This Team Ain't Perfect

The Spurs came into this game with 16 wins in their last 17 contests. The disappointment from the players and the fanbase that they couldn't get this one done, even with Wembanyama out against a Jokic-led team, speaks to just how high they've raised the bar and the expectations.

Nobody thought they'd be a legitimate title contender this year, but here they are on a 60-win pace with impressive victories over all of the other teams with a shot at the Larry in a year where it feels pretty wide-open.

These guys expect to win every game, and they have a good chance each and every night.

That doesn't mean they're bulletproof, though. Nobody is. This loss gives them plenty to reflect on and learn from, and perhaps a bad taste in their moth that they'll take out on their next opponents.