Best, Worse In Spurs Win Over Denver

(AP)  The San Antonio Spurs went from one of the NBA's worst teams last season to one of its best this season and set a record in the process.

With a 96-82 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, the Spurs set an NBA record for the largest single season turnaround in league history.

The Spurs, with 56 victories, had a 36-game improvement over last season. That surpassed the previous record of a 35-game swing by San Antonio during David Robinson's rookie year of 1989-90.

"The difference between last year and this year is like night and day," veteran guard Vinny Del Negro said. "I don't remember, did we even play last year? We're playing good basketball now."

A big reason for the turnaround has been the play of rookie Tim Duncan, who scored 25 points to lead the Spurs to the win over Denver. Duncan led the NBA this season with 57 double-doubles.

Jaren Jackson added 13 points for San Antonio, which will open the playoffs at Phoenix on April 23. The two teams ended the regular season with identical 56-26 records, but the Suns won the season series 3-1.

"It feels great to have the regular season over," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "For the last two weeks a lot of guys on a lot of teams have been excited about the playoffs. Obviously we looked like we were on another planet during the first half, but we knew that we had a job to do and didn't want to lose momentum."

All three of Phoenix's wins over San Antonio this season were by a double-figure margins.

"Phoenix has given us trouble all year," Popovich said. "We respect them. They are very talented and play hard. It's going to be a tough challenge for us."

Denver ended the season with an 11-71 record, tying the second-worst since the NBA went to an 82-game schedule for the 1967-68 season.

"I'd like to commend the effort we got in the last 20 games or so," Denver coach Bill Hanzlik said. "We played a lot of close games against tough teams when other teams in this league had already packed it in. We never did that."

Danny Fortson led the Nuggets with 16 points, while LaPhonso Ellis added 15.

"It feels good to be done with it, it was a long, brutal year," Ellis said. "A tough season like that, who would want to keep going through that?"

After leading 45-38 at halftime, Denver opened the third quarter with an 8-2 run to lead 53-40 on an Anthony Goldwire layup with 9:56 to play.

San Antonio then went to work, outscoring Denver 18-4 to take a 58-57 lead on Vinny Del Negro's jump shot with 3:53 remaining in the third quarter.

Duncan had eight points in the quarter, and the Spurs led 64-61 going to the final quarter.

San Antonio continued the run in the fourth, grabbing a 74-63 lead when Jckson connected on a 3-point field goal with 8:06 to play.

Jackson had 10 fourth-quarter points as San Antonio outscored Denver 32-21 in the period and finished a sweep of the four-game season series.

"I'm very excited that the season's over," said Duncan, who also grabbed seven rebounds. "It's been a long time coming. It's great to have it all in the books. I'm very excited about the team and our chances in the playoffs."

"The team has come a long way, we have confidence in one another," said Robinson, who scored nine points in only 12 minutes of playing time. "We feel good defensively that we can make stops. I'm excited about how far we've come and I'm excited to get going in the playoffs and have some fun."

Notes: San Antonio leads the NBA in field goal percentage against (41.1 percent) and is tops in the league in points allowed (88.6) . . . Duncan ended the regular season with 57 double-doubles, which easily led the NBA.

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