Notorious for pacing themselves during the regular season in recent years, the San Antonio Spurs were limping along at 9-8 when their bus pulled into the Pepsi Center parking lot two months ago.

They had spent most of November as an incomplete unit, first without shooting guard Manu Ginobili and then without point guard Tony Parker.

Given a chance to use injuries as an excuse, All-Star forward Tim Duncan instead expressed his concern.

"I don't remember it ever being like this," Duncan said after San Antonio's Dec. 4 shootaround.

That night, with Ginobili and Parker healthy, the Spurs went out and dismantled the Nuggets 108-91, triggering a six-game winning streak.

They have stumbled only a handful of times since.

San Antonio, 32-14 entering its game at Golden State on Monday night, returns to Denver tonight boasting the second-best record in the West — thanks primarily to a 23-6 stretch that started with the lopsided victory against the Nuggets.

"I think the Lakers, Spurs (and) maybe New Orleans in the West have shown that they're a little ahead of the curve being a championship contender," Nuggets coach George Karl said Monday. "I think everybody's giving the Lakers the benefit of the doubt, but I think from a mental toughness standpoint, San Antonio's ahead of everybody."

Much of the credit goes to Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Bruce Bowen — the four remaining Spurs who have been on all three of San Antonio's title-winning teams in the past six seasons.

The consistent quartet reminds Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups of his time with the Detroit Pistons, whose core players were together for six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference finals and an NBA championship run in 2006.

"The one thing that's different — and it's a major thing, to be honest — is (the Spurs have) been able to stay consistent at the top as far as a coach," Billups said. "We went through like four coaches (in Detroit). When you can stay with one coach that's been great, it makes a difference."

Now in his 13th NBA season — all with the Spurs — coach Gregg Popovich has a good chance to add to his four championship rings.

Two of the titles (2005 and 2007) came after defeating Denver in the first round of the playoffs, but the Nuggets are hoping to make an early statement in the teams' final regular-season meeting tonight.

With the standings tight and the season series tied 1-1, a win would give Denver the tiebreaker in case of playoff seeding.

"We had looked forward to that (Dec. 4) game, actually, and just came out and got dominated," Billups said. "That was one of our most disappointing losses, probably.

"I know that we're going to fight. It's a good game for us to measure where we're at because they are one of the elite teams and we want to get to that level. That's a team that we could see later on down the road."

Staff writer Chris Tomasson contributed to this report.