Nuggets at Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs look to continue their dominance in the series and win for the 26th straight time at home, dating to last season, as they host the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night. The Spurs have won nine consecutive games over the improving Nuggets — two this season — and can improve to 17-0 at home in 2015-16.
San Antonio must recover from its worst offensive performance of the season Friday when the Spurs were edged by Houston 88-84 to end a seven-game win streak. Denver has quietly won six of its last 10 outings and stands just one game behind eighth-place Utah in the Western Conference. “All we harp on is, nobody is talking about us and that’s great,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone told the Denver Post. “We’re just worried about ourselves. We don’t want distractions. Our goal every day is 'let’s get better.' ” Randy Foye, who started in place of Emmanuel Mudiay (ankle) and Jameer Nelson (illness) at point guard, scored a season-high 31 to show the Nuggets’ depth Wednesday in a 104-96 win over Phoenix.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, Altitude (Denver), FSN Southwest (San Antonio)
ABOUT THE NUGGETS (12-17): Leading scorer Danilo Gallinari (17.3) has missed the last two games with an ankle injury and is questionable while Will Barton has stepped up his output of late. Barton, who was acquired from Portland last season, is averaging 24.7 points and made 12-of-22 attempts from beyond the arc in the last three contests. Power forward Kenneth Faried also has been a bigger factor in that same span, posting 15.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game and making 17-of-30 from the field.
ABOUT THE SPURS (25-6): San Antonio shot just 40.9 percent from the field and was only 5-of-19 from 3-point range against the Rockets while registering 17 turnovers. Veteran center Tim Duncan posted his first double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds) in 12 games Friday and Kawhi Leonard scored a team-high 20. Point guard Tony Parker comes in off a rough 1-of-7 shooting performance, but is averaging 19 points and seven assists while making 15-of-21 from the floor against Denver this season.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Foye is shooting just 30.3 percent from 3-point range on the season, but has made 18-of-33 the last four games.
2. San Antonio G Danny Green, who shoots better than 40 percent from 3-point range in his career, is just 14-for-48 from beyond the arc in December.
3. Denver G Gary Harris has posted 21 points twice in the past six games and scored four or fewer three times in the same span.