Devin Vassell scored 18 of his season-high 35 points in the fourth quarter and the visiting San Antonio Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets 139-136 on Friday night to win West Group C and advance to the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup.
Julian Champagnie scored 25 points — also a season high — and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Spurs. De’Aaron Fox finished with 15 points and 12 assists, Keldon Johnson contributed 14 points off the bench, and Luke Kornet added 12 points.
The Spurs scored 30 points off 17 Denver turnovers to hand the Nuggets their third straight home loss.
Jamal Murray led Denver with 37 points, Nikola Jokic had 21 points and 10 assists, Cameron Johnson contributed a season-high 28 points, and Tim Hardaway Jr. and Peyton Watson finished with 15 points each. Denver finished 2-2 in NBA Cup play and was eliminated from contention.
The Nuggets led 109-103 two minutes into the fourth quarter but San Antonio scored the next eight points to go ahead by two. Hardaway made two 3-pointers but San Antonio surged again and took advantage of two straight Denver turnovers to lead 121-117 with 5:15 left.
The Nuggets got within one but Champagnie converted a three-point play with 3:27 to go. Johnson hit a corner 3-pointer and despite two more turnovers, Murray tied it when he split a pair of free throws with 1:41 remaining.
But Vassell drained back-to-back 3-pointers to put it away for the Spurs.
Denver led by 18 in the first 30 seconds of the second half and then 98-83 midway through the third period, but San Antonio dominated the rest of the quarter.
Champagnie hit three free throws, tipped in a miss and Dylan Harper drained a pair of foul shots to cut it to 98-92. Following three free throws from Jokic, Carter Bryant and Keldon Johnson hit 3-pointers before Kelly Olynyk made two foul shots and rattled in a 3-pointer to give the Spurs a 103-101 lead.
Cameron Johnson’s 3-pointer in the final seconds gave the Nuggets a one-point lead heading into the fourth.
San Antonio led 41-33 after the first quarter but the Nuggets clamped down on defense in the second and outscored the Spurs 41-18 to take a 74-59 lead into halftime.
–Field Level Media
