The Spurs tried to game NBA playoff bracket and got a young star hurt instead

The San Antonio Spurs overplayed their hand on Sunday night.

With the Denver Nuggets electing to rest most of their presumed playoff rotation rather than push for seeding, San Antonio had an opportunity to knock Denver out of its playoff bracket, avoiding a possible matchup between the two teams until the Western Conference Finals. This, of course, was entirely optional. As the locked-in No. 2 seed in the West, the Spurs had nothing to gain otherwise. If anything, with Victor Wembanyama sitting out, they could've elected to rest most of their other key players alongside him, choosing to save some energy for the postseason.

They did not. Instead, in a matchup against the Nuggets' bench and 18 minutes of Nikola Jokić (who only played to maintain end-of-year award eligibility, but treated his minutes like a playoff dress rehearsal), the Spurs trotted almost everyone out onto the court. In a competitive affair, there was seemingly never any real consideration of pulling anyone.

After all, how could they?

When the Nuggets' bench players outplayed most of the Spurs' playoff rotation in a game Denver didn't ultimately care about, San Antonio was in too deep. It was either win this game and save face, or wave the white flag and pretend their attempted bracket manipulation was never all that serious. The Spurs chose the former and were humiliated by the Nuggets' reserves, who made a huge "we don't care who we play" statement.

But the Spurs clearly did care and lost.

Worse yet, star rookie guard Dylan Harper injured his thumb in the process of this (probably unnecessary) failed gambit. The basketball gods do not play around. Woof:

I might be wrong in my assessment, but this whole situation felt like a glaring example of the Spurs' inexperience.

From my vantage point, they thought the Nuggets players still playing would simply roll over. They thought they could move their playoff chess pieces without much resistance. When Denver landed the first punch and kept it going anyway, this was a culture shock to the Spurs' core, who then tried to save face by overextending most of their rotation. And they still fell flat.

Quite frankly, they're lucky that Harper's injury doesn't appear to be too serious. But you never know with a thumb injury. It's something we'll have to monitor this week.

The Spurs let the Nuggets make a huge mental statement ahead of a possible second-round playoff matchup. And one of their stars got hurt along the way. It's not often you can screw up a meaningless Game 82 this badly as a contender. Yet, here the young Spurs are, landing with a thud.

At this point, they have to hope they won't regret this silly gambit in due time.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Spurs got Dylan Harper injured in attempt to duck Nuggets in playoffs