The Denver Nuggets had no business winning Thursday night’s game.
Down 20 in the second quarter. Shooting 7.1% from 3 in the first quarter. Playing the second night of a back-to-back. Missing Aaron Gordon. On the road against one of the best teams in the Western Conference.
And yet.
Denver rallied for their second-largest comeback win of the year to beat San Antonio 136-131, handing the Spurs their first loss this season when leading by 20 or more points. They had been 21-0 in such games.
“Made some shots,” Jamal Murray said afterward to the broadcast. “We calmed down on offense, made some shots and made it a ball game.”
Murray did far more than make some shots. He finished with 39 points on 11-of-21 shooting, went 15-for-15 from the free throw line and poured in 30 of those points in the second half when the Nuggets needed every flurry they could get.
“He’s just so mentally tough,” head coach David Adelman said. “The shot making was so impressive. He made a couple big threes, but some of the in-between shots he made, the floaters, the semi post-ups, and obviously 15-for-15 from the free throw line to close the game out is really special.”
The Spurs jumped Denver early, outscoring the Nuggets 37-25 in the first quarter behind a frenetic pace that Adelman admitted his team couldn’t match. Denver shot just 29.2% from the field in the opening period and made only one 3-pointer on 14 attempts. It was looking like the back-to-back was going to get the best of them.
San Antonio, playing without Victor Wembanyama due to right ankle soreness, didn’t seem to miss him. Stephon Castle filled the void with a triple-double of his own — 30 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists — while De’Aaron Fox added 27 points and nine assists.
“I didn’t know their home crowd was so amazing,” Murray said. “They’re just getting up and down and scoring at will.”
By the time Devin Vassell knocked down a 3-pointer with 6:45 left in the second quarter, the Spurs led 53-33. Denver’s win probability, according to tracking data, cratered under 4%, bouncing as low as 2.7% into the third quarter.
34-13 Nuggets in the fourth quarter. This game was over just a few minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/IWEk1JmOXo
— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) March 13, 2026
The Nuggets chipped away in the third behind Murray and Nikola Jokic, who finished with 31 points, 20 rebounds and 12 assists — his 10th career triple-double on both nights of a back-to-back, extending his own NBA record.
“It’s just second nature to see, watch him just do that now,” Murray said of Jokic. “Honestly, the other guys stepped up too.”
But it was the fourth quarter — specifically, the start of it — that flipped the game.
Adelman went with a lineup featuring Murray, Spencer Jones, Julian Strawther, Bruce Brown and Christian Braun to open the period. With Jokic sitting, Denver ignited a 14-3 run that sliced the deficit to one.
Jones was brilliant, finishing with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting and providing two critical 3-pointers early in the fourth that gave Denver life.
“Spencer’s two threes to start the fourth were just enormous, and the little floater he made,” Adelman said. “To win in the NBA nowadays, especially in the Western Conference, it’s going to be somebody different every night.”
Murray’s step-back 3-pointer with 4:39 remaining gave Denver its first lead of the game, 121-119, capping a 24-10 run that swung the entire complexion of the night.
The Spurs answered with back-to-back 3s from Fox and Castle to make it interesting. But Murray kept going to work — spinning, floating, pulling up from midrange — and Cameron Johnson added 15 points, including clutch buckets down the stretch that helped Denver maintain separation.
“These are games you live for,” Murray said. “May not be playoffs, but these wins mean a lot, and it says a lot about your character as a group on the road, dealing with adversity.”
The victory marks the second time this season Denver has overcome a 20-point deficit, second only to their 23-point comeback against Atlanta. Of the 17 NBA wins this season by teams trailing by 20-plus, seven have come on the road — and the Nuggets own two of them.
It’s also the largest comeback on a back-to-back road game in the league this year.
“We beat Houston by 40, I’d rather do that,” Adelman said with a laugh. “But yeah, it’s a great win.”
A loss would have dropped Denver to just a half-game ahead of the play-in. Instead, the Nuggets improved to 41-26 and head to Los Angeles with momentum and a reminder of what they’re capable of when their two stars get rolling.
“You get yourself in a good position to win a game, and then special people win games,” Adelman said. “Jamal and Nikola are really special late.”
A night after one of their best quarters of the season, the Nuggets followed it up with another fantastic period, adding some clutch-time magic to finish off a strong foe.
What’s next for the Nuggets?
The Nuggets travel to Los Angeles ,where they have the chance to win another seeding tiebreaker against the Lakers on Saturday night. They return home on Tuesday to host a banged-up 76ers team.