Denver beat San Antonio 136-134 in overtime Saturday night in a game that lived up to the billing and then some, with Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama trading blows in front of a sellout crowd in Denver.
Jokić scored 40 points, added 13 assists and eight rebounds, and finished with zero turnovers in 44 minutes. Wembanyama answered with 34 points, 18 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks, and the final minutes turned into the kind of duel both coaches had spent the day trying to frame as an MVP case.
The finish belonged to Jokić. He tied the score with 6.2 seconds left in regulation when he found Aaron Gordon cutting to the rim for a dunk, then put Denver ahead for good in overtime with an 11-foot rainbow shot over Wembanyama for a 133-129 lead. He closed it with another floater from 7 feet with 9.8 seconds left, a shot that sealed a win Denver leaned on all night.
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Christian Braun added 21 points for the Nuggets, while Julian Champagnie scored 18 points on six 3-pointers for San Antonio. The Spurs kept forcing Denver to answer, and the Nuggets kept finding one more play.
That is why coach David Adelman called it the kind of game he would pay to watch, one he said was good for sports and proof that fans do not often get to see two players like this in many generations. Braun sounded just as taken with the moment, saying these are the games players live for.
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San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said it felt like there were high stakes from the first possession and called it a really fun game to be part of. Jokić, meanwhile, brushed off the idea that his overtime shot over Wembanyama was some kind of signature move, saying it was the same kind of look he has seen before and that he simply created a little more space.
Still, the night added another line to the MVP argument both sides had already been making before tipoff. Adelman put it bluntly afterward: Jokić is the best player in the world. On a night when Denver needed every bit of his touch, timing and composure, he made the case look hard to argue with.
