The No. 2 Denver Nuggets will face the No. 7 San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs. Here is all you need to know ahead of the first round series. The field is set for the 2019 NBA Playoffs, which begin on Saturday. NBA.com is your destination for complete coverage of every series from now through the end of the NBA Finals. Series Schedule Here is the schedule for the series between the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs, which begins on April 13: Game 1 - Saturday, April 13 at Denver, 10:30 p.m. Game 2 - Tuesday, April 16 at Denver, 9:00 p.m. Game 3 - Thursday, April 18 at San Antonio, 9:00 p.m. Game 4 - Saturday, April 20 at San Antonio, 5:30 p.m. Game 5 (if necessary) - Tuesday, April 23 at Denver, TBD Game 6 (if necessary) - Thursday, April 25 at San Antonio, TBD Game 7 (if necessary) - Saturday, April 27 at Denver, TBD Recapping the season series Result: Teams split 2-2 Best game: March 4, 2019 - Spurs 104, Nuggets 103 Best performance: DeMar DeRozan (Dec. 26, 2018) - 30 points (9-17 FG), 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals in Spurs win The Nuggets and Spurs played each other close in two of their four matchups this season. On Dec. 28, the Nuggets defeated the Spurs, 102-99, behind 31 points from Jamal Murray and 21 points, nine rebounds and nine assists from Nikola Jokic. On March 4, it was the Spurs who came out on top, as they held off a huge fourth quarter from Murray to get the 104-103 win. As for the two other games: San Antonio defeated Denver in the first matchup of the season, 111-103, while the Nuggets beat them by 28 points on April 3. The Nuggets were in peak form in that win - they assisted on 41 of their 47 shot attempts, led by 11 from Murray. Key storyline: Denver's playoff experience The Nuggets were one of the best teams in the league this season, but they don't have much playoff experience. Of the five players who led the team in minutes, Paul Millsap is the only one who has been in the playoffs before (87 career games). Both Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray will be making their playoff debuts, as will the likes of Monte Morris, Malik Beasley, Gary Harris and head coach Mike Malone. The Spurs, meanwhile, have been to 22 consecutive postseasons, tying the longest streak in NBA history. They also have some players in the rotation who don't have much playoff experience, but DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge, Patty Mills and Marco Belinelli have all been there before. The four of them play a significant role on the team, with DeRozan and Aldridge being San Antonio's leading scorers and Mills and Belinelli headlining the team's bench, which is one of its greatest strengths. Will that experience hurt the Nuggets or do they have enough talent to overcome it? 3 Players to Watch Derrick White vs. Nuggets in 2018-19 (four games): 8.3 points (33.3% shooting, 18.8% 3-point shooting), 4.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds According to NBA.com, nobody defended Jamal Murray for more possessions this season than White. White did a decent job on the explosive guard, holding him to 16-for-36 shooting while also limiting him to only 11 assists and forcing nine turnovers. With how important Murray's scoring is to the Nuggets - more on that below - his defence will be at the centre of this series. Jamal Murray vs. Spurs in 2018-19 (four games): 19.8 points (39.2% shooting, 41.4% 3-point shooting), 6.0 assists, 4.8 rebounds When Murray plays well, good things usually happen for the Nuggets. Whereas he averaged 19.5 points on 46.2 percent shooting from the field and 39.7 percent from the perimeter in wins this season, he averaged 15.8 points on 38.9 percent shooting from the field and 29.9 percent from the perimeter in losses. Nikola Jokic vs. Spurs in 2018-19 (four games): 16.8 points (69.8% shooting, 50.0% 3-point shooting), 8.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists Jokic is the reason the Nuggets have one of the league's most potent offences. He's coming off of a career year in which he was named an All-Star for the first time and worked his way into the MVP conversation with averages of 20.1 points, 10.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game. The Nuggets were 7.7 points per 100 possessions better offensively with him on the floor, the highest differential on the team. Fast Facts - The Nuggets finished the season ranked seventh in offensive rating (112.1), 10th in defensive rating (108.0) and eighth in net rating (4.0). - The Spurs finished the season ranked sixth in offensive rating (112.2), 20th in defensive rating (110.5) and 12th in net rating (1.6). - DeMar DeRozan averaged a career-high 6.2 assists per game. The Spurs have needed his playmaking after losing starting point guard Dejounte Murray in preseason to a torn ACL. - Patty Mills (155) and Marco Belinelli (145) finished in the top-five in total 3-pointers made for bench players. - Nuggets backup point guard Monte Morris had the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio (5.71) in the league. - Wilt Chamberlain is the only centre who has ever averaged more assists in a single season than Nikola Jokic.<doc-sep>After 82 games, numerous injuries, several startling performances and pulling a few rabbits out of hats, the second-seeded Denver Nuggets return to the playoffs for the first time since 2013. They face the seventh-seeded San Antonio Spurs, which is a sore spot with fans who remember their casual decimation of the Carmelo-Anthony-led Nuggets in 2005 and 2007. The same coach is at the helm for the Spurs now, though lacking a Tim Duncan to dispatch the Nuggets quite that easily. That said this is a matchup that will require the Nuggets to bring the focus that has been missing for the past few weeks. Gregg Popovich will have his team prepared to take advantage of any Nuggets mistakes, and Denver cannot afford to spot the Spurs even a single game. The playoffs are unfamiliar to most of Denver’s players, but they’ll need to hit the ground running - perhaps literally - to continue achieving the goals they’ve set for themselves this year. What Denver Brings Jokic-ball. The Nuggets have figured out how to defend decently around their unconventional center (mostly thanks to the efforts of Paul Millsap) but the heartbeat of the team will always be his unique offensive creation. This year didn’t feel as flashy as years past, but Nikola Jokic put up the sort of numbers only seen five decades ago in the NBA by a big man. The Nuggets have a bundle of guards who should be able to score, but injuries have reduced the effectiveness several members of that cadre, most seriously Gary Harris and Will Barton. Those injuries led to the emergence of Monte Morris and Malik Beasley, however, and it will be up to coach Michael Malone to figure out how to find the hot hand among all the guard choices in a shortened rotation. What San Antonio Brings Execution. The Spurs held Denver to an average of 103 points per game in their first three meetings this year. Two of those were without Paul Millsap, but Popovich respects both Jokic and Michael Malone and managed to curtail Denver’s offensive output without having an all-world paint defender like Rudy Gobert to deploy. The Spurs will be disciplined, understand Malone’s own holy grail of defending without fouling, and have enough offensive weapons to cause Denver problems. They are also extremely patient about creating the right shot, as the Spurs are top-two in the league in both three point percentage and two point percentage. Far from being a run-and-gun team, the Spurs remain methodical and boring executioners, and the Nuggets need to avoid sticking their heads under that guillotine. Key Things to Watch 1) Free throws. As our own Adam Mares said once the matchup was finalized, the Spurs are good at not fouling and Denver is lousy at getting to the line: Nuggets shot just 4 FTs in a game against the Spurs earlier this season. That was the fewest FTAs in a game by any team in the league this season. — Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) April 11, 2019 Jokic has already been tossed a pair of times in the last month due to vocal disagreements with the way his fouls are being adjudicated, and the calls will only get stingier in this series. The Nuggets will have to find ways to score despite non-calls, and to force some calls with aggressive play inside. But getting calls is not how Denver has made their bones this season and won’t be how they win this series. Griping about it to the officials could be how they lose it, though, and no doubt Malone is emphasizing that every day to his All-World center. Advantage: Refs Advice: Denver has excellent appetite stimulants now, as well as tons of great restaurants. I’m not saying you wine and dine the refs, but some casual recommendations before tip-off and a display of decorum during Game 1 might go a long way toward making Game 2 a fair fight. 2) Veteran experience. Denver has Millsap, who will be making his 10th trip to the playoffs and has 87 games under his belt already. Mason Plumlee has 27, Will Barton has 7 off the bench.... and that’s it for Denver’s rotation pieces, unless you want to count the 10 minutes Trey Lyles scraped together over a pair of games with the Utah Jazz. Isaiah Thomas may be the playoff advisor of this squad, but the rest of Denver’s players are in uncharted territory. When you home brew a roster with lottery picks that’s what happens - and it puts Denver under more pressure since they need to come out strong at home. If the Spurs had home court maybe the Nuggets could take a game to find their footing, but they need to come out strong from the jump in Game 1 to avoid relinquishing the home court they just fought for 82 long games to get. The Spurs have DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge as their veteran linchpins, but DeRozan has to overcome the playoff yips that have affected him in past years while Aldridge has to hold off Denver’s bigger front court with little expected assistance from the rest of San Antonio’s big men. The playoff spotlight won’t scare San Antonio’s best players, nor their coach. The Spurs will grind out every possession, exploit every weakness, and push Denver both offensively and defensively to create more cracks. Denver will have to be just as patient, something this season has hopefully taught them, and exploit their own mismatches to their fullest. Advantage: Spurs Advice: Accept that San Antonio is used to this and use the extra energy of the playoff crowd and atmosphere as a boost. Denver’s offense has been just 22nd best in the league since the All-Star Break and if any unit could use that infusion of energy to return to the cutting, dynamic approach from earlier in the year it would be Denver’s. Everything about this season has been new and different for the Nuggets. No sense in being afraid of the unknown now. 3) Bench, meet bench. Jamal Murray has had an inconsistent season full of terrific highs and some inconsistent lows. Harris and Barton have struggled through injury and are still regaining form. But the guys who have carried water for Denver all season no matter the circumstance have been Denver’s bench trio of Monte Morris, Malik Beasley and Mason Plumlee. Playing with a true point guard again has helped Plumlee regain his Portland form and impact, while Beasley’s shooting numbers (over 40% from three on 5 attempts per game) dramatically improved his impact as well. He’s been the sharpshooter Denver desperately needed, and his open court finishes aren’t bad either. But Morris is the uncovered gem of this season, the point guard who can steady the offense when Jokic is out and who can still get his own bucket. In fact, comparing him to Ty Lawson at the same age isn’t out of bounds. As the rotations shorten in the playoffs, those three will only get more opportunities to pay off Denver’s depth. But the Spurs have similar bench contributors. Patty Mills is the older version of Morris, the steady hand guiding the reserves. Marco Belinelli has had too many good performances against Denver as a bench sniper to be ignored - though something tells me Denver will ignore him for at least one game while I throw things and swear - and Jakob Poeltl is something of an X factor himself. The Spurs really need someone to soak minutes and contribute as a large body against Plumlee and Jokic and to keep San Antonio within reach in the rebounding stats. If Poeltl can do that, it really will be an extended series for Denver. Advantage: Denver Advice: give Morris more run in the playoffs. Mistakes are amplified in the postseason, and Morris simply makes fewer than almost any guard in the league. Don’t be afraid to let him shoulder the burden of the offense as the Spurs focus on Jokic. 4) Home court. The Nuggets haven’t won in San Antonio since March of 2012, during Corey Brewer’s inaugural season in Denver.<doc-sep>Open Thread: There are more former Spurs in the postseason than meets the eye The Spurs may be out for the season, but the legacy lives on.<doc-sep>
If Wednesday night wasn’t loopy enough, welcome back, Pop! Short of a No. 1 seed, the final day of the regular season couldn’t have set the Western Conference seeding up any kinder for the Denver Nuggets, who — thanks to a 15-0 run to close out a wild 99-95 home win over Minnesota in the regular-season finale — wound up on the opposite side of the brackets from two veteran squads, Golden State (the 1 seed) and Houston (the 4), that have been absolute thorns in a young roster’s sides. And away from a regional rival in Utah (the 5) that’s had Denver’s number since New Year’s Day. The second-seeded Nuggets (54-28), who open their first NBA playoff berth in six years with a seven-game series against San Antonio (48-34) late Saturday night, dropped nine of 12 to the Warriors, Rockets and Jazz during the regular season — and all three will have the chance to beat each other up before they would potentially cross Denver’s postseason path. Still, long-view mojo won’t mean much if the Nuggets, who are bringing the youngest roster to the NBA’s postseason party, can’t navigate past venerated coach Gregg Popovich and the seventh-seeded Spurs first. Both teams were so superb at home — the Nuggets had an NBA-best 34-7 home court mark, while the Spurs were 32-9 in their backyard — that the onus is going to fall on whomever can steal a tilt on the other guy’s hostile home floor. San Antonio was 0-2 at the Pepsi Center during the regular season and has dropped five of its last six in the Mile High City over the last four years. Recent history is kinder to Denver than a comparison of postseason scorecards. It’ll be the first playoff meeting between the Nuggets and San Antonio since 2007, when the Spurs took a first-round series, 4-1. Denver has met San Antonio six times in the NBA Playoffs, and the Nuggets have snatched only one series win: A 3-2 victory in the first round of the 1985 playoffs. Which means only one player on coach Michael Malone’s roster, 34-year-old power forward Paul Millsap, was alive the last time a Denver squad eliminated the Spurs from the postseason. So, hey, they’re due, right? With Pop in the picture, we know that anything’s possible — good, bad, or, in the case of his ejection just 63 seconds into his last visit to the Pepsi Center, outright weird. If we’ve learned anything from the postseason — heck, from the home finale — it’s to expect the unexpected. And to hold on tight. Head-to-head, regular season (Series tied, 2-2) • Dec. 26, 2018: at Spurs 111, Nuggets 103 • Dec. 28, 2018: at Nuggets 102, Spurs 99 • March 4, 2019: at Spurs 104, Nuggets 103 • April 3, 2019: at Nuggets 113, Spurs 85 Backcourt The early — and obvious — hot take is that the length of the Nuggets’ postseason stay will depend largely on guard Jamal Murray, who, like most of the roster, is appearing in the postseason for the first time and can elevate the offense, or sink it, on any given night. Swingman Will Barton, who played in seven postgame contests with Portland in 2014, could well be an ‘X’ factor, but the veteran has struggled with health and consistency and limped a bit offensively down the stretch. Conversely, one of the biggest defensive keys for the Nuggets likely falls on — paging Gary Harris? — the shoulders of whoever’s shadowing Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan. In the Nuggets’ two wins against San Antonio, DeRozan averaged just 13.0 points and 4.0 assists. In the two losses, both at the AT&T Center, DeRozan’s numbers jumped up to 27.0 points and 6.0 dimes per contest. Edge: Nuggets Frontcourt Count on Pop to get surly, and to throw the kitchen sink at the Nuggets’ All-Star center Nikola Jokic, who averaged 16.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.5 assists in the four meetings against San Antonio in the regular season. Supplemental post scoring from Millsap and backup big man Mason Plumlee, both of whom bring postseason mileage to the table, could be pivotal given the relative playoff inexperience of their peers. Spurs star LaMarcus Aldridge netted at least 20 points in three of the four regular-season meetings and figures to get his. Teammate Rudy Gay, however, wasn’t much of a factor in the two Denver wins, averaging only 8.5 points and 5.0 boards at the Pepsi Center.