Spencer Jones experiencing all-time brutal week through little fault of his own

This was an up-and-down week for the Nuggets, starting off with the painful loss in Oklahoma City, followed by a blowout win over the Rockets and a massive comeback victory over the Spurs, only to be bookended with a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Lakers.

Things could have gone much worse, and overall, it was a pretty promising span for Denver, with a lot of positive takeaways. But it was a bit of an unfortunate week for Spencer Jones, who found himself on the wrong side of not one, but two all-time highlight reel shots.

Jones has been a massive success story for the Nuggets this season, earning himself a standard contract and a role in the rotation. Even with the team mostly healthy, he remains a key figure, and it’s mostly thanks to his size, athleticism, and defensive impact.

It’s a major credit to him that he’s getting crunch-time minutes and that David Adelman and his staff trust him to be on the floor for some of the biggest possessions of the season. But it caught up with him on two occasions, and he’ll factor into the personal highlight reels of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic forever.

SGA buried game-winning 3 in Jones’ face

First, on Monday night, with the game miraculously tied after a Nuggets four-point play, the Thunder had Jaylin Williams set a screen to free up SGA with just over 8 seconds left in the game. 

The Nuggets easily conceded the switch, getting Christian Braun off of Shai for Jones. Jones, to his credit, clung to Shai, nearly denying the pass. The problem with that was that his aggressive overplay gave SGA a step, which was all he needed. He drove hard, pulled up abruptly, and stepped back into a three.

Jones was on him and offered a very good contest without fouling, but Gilgeous-Alexander was unbothered and buried the clutch, difficult shot anyway to get the win for the Thunder.

Doncic hits step-back right over Jones

Then, on Saturday night, we found ourselves in a precariously similar situation. With the game tied in overtime and the clock ticking under 10 seconds, the Lakers had Luka Doncic screen Jones in the back, forcing him to switch onto Doncic instead of Braun.

Jones, to his credit, stayed glued to Luka as he drove to his left, but Doncic extended the arm with a bit of a push-off that wasn’t called as he took a huge step back, creating just enough space to put up a floating baseline fadeaway over the outstretched hand of Jones.

Again, it was good defense and a solid contest without fouling from Jones, but again, the shot from a future Hall of Famer splashed through the net, sending the Nuggets home with a loss.

Two iconic moments from two of the game’s best players and brightest stars. And the common theme was Spencer Jones on the receiving end of both. It’s not his fault. Truly. He did what he could in those matchups and forced shots you’ll live with. 

Sometimes greatness simply prevails. Elite offense players made elite plays despite great defense. Jones will shake it off, and again, he should be proud that the team trusts him in these spots. But these were a couple of moments he’d like to forget, that will instead live on forever.