The math is simple.
If the Nuggets don’t beat San Antonio tonight in Game 4 of their first- round playoff series, they will have to win as many times at the Spurs’ SBC Center in two weeks as the entire NBA did all season. San Antonio went 38-3 there before splitting its two playoff home games with Denver.
“The game plan is out the door,” Nuggets center said Sunday. “We’ve got to fight, scratch, claw and even this thing up. We don’t want to be down 3-1 going back to San Antonio. We haven’t put together a solid two halves of basketball. We know that it’s coming, that we need it to come (tonight), or it’ll be a long, long summer for us.”
Added forward : “Bottom line. This is a game we must win. We got to go out and get it. No in between.”
But for all those dire pronouncements, Nuggets coach George Karl said despite San Antonio’s 2-1 lead, the series is as good as tied in his mind.
“The pendulum in a playoff series swings,” he said. “We win (tonight) I think the pendulum swings, the confidence swings to our side. Even though they have the home court back, it still swings to our side.”
Karl argued Sunday his team isn’t in as desperate a situation as it looks, despite having averaged just 82.3 points per game in the series. He called the second half of Game 3, which the Spurs won 86-78, the best half Denver has had in the series.
Nuggets guard agreed, saying: “We realize what’s at stake in Game 4. We still haven’t played a complete game yet. Last game, the second half was probably the best half we played the entire series. Our backs are against the wall. We have to take momentum from the second half in Game 4. We have to play our way the entire 48 minutes.”
The Spurs also are on the lookout for Denver’s first complete game of the series.
“I think they’ll come out and try to use their physicality in some sort of situation to try to establish themselves and give themselves some hype,” San Antonio forward Tim Duncan said. “We just have to play through all of that and understand that it’s a 48-minute game and they are going have to play an entire 48 minutes.”
While their offense has sputtered, the Nuggets have turned in the two best defensive quarters in franchise history in this series. The 11 points San Antonio scored in the third quarter Saturday reset the team record Denver set by holding the Spurs to 12 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1.
As for the offense, Karl said he would continue to try to keep the Nuggets running in the style that won them so many regular-season games, even if it flies against the argument that running teams struggle in the postseason.
“I’m not a historian,” he said. “But I’m also not stupid enough to change a style that brought us success in a playoff series.”
Meanwhile, a day to cool off changed nothing of Karl’s opinion of how Game 3 was officiated. The coach said “it was worse on film,” though he would not say the referees cost Denver the game.
He did add: “After watching the film, I thought we were wearing the black hats and they were wearing the white hats. They are the champions, and sometimes that’s the way it works. The champions do get benefits. But I thought on our home court, we’re supposed to have the white hats.”
Whether Karl’s very public complaints have an effect on how Game 4 is called remains to be seen. Either way, Martin said: “One day we might get calls and one day we might not. We can’t let that dictate the way we play.”
After seeing a franchise- record 19,913 fans Saturday at the Pepsi Center, Karl said he wants to use a similar crowd to help swing the pendulum his team’s way.
“It’s just the continuation of the honeymoon, of a special year,” he said. “I just wish we could have snowballed it into a win, because I think the city’s ready to explode and really support this team.
“That’s why I think Monday’s game is a huge game. I don’t know if it’s the biggest game in (owner) Stan Kroenke’s history or (general manager) Kiki Vandeweghe’s history. I think it’s a huge game. I really think it’s the first one, probably since I’ve been here, that’s a must-win game.”
The Nuggets’ choices are winning one tonight or three straight the rest of the way. It isn’t a hard choice.
Staff writers Chris Dempsey and Marc J. Spears contributed to this report.
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
THE SCHEDULE
Game 1: Nuggets 93, Spurs 87
Game 2: Spurs 104, Nuggets 76
Game 3: Spurs 86, Nuggets 78
Spurs lead series 2-1
Game 4: Tonight at Denver, 8:30 p.m., TNT/Altitude
Game 5: Wednesday at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m., TNT
Game 6: Friday at Denver, TBA*
Game 7: Sunday at San Antonio, TBA*
*If necessary
