SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Beating the San Antonio Spurs is only going to get tougher for the Denver Nuggets.

“Game 2 is always the hardest game, especially for the winning team (in Game 1),” Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony said Monday. “We know they’ll adjust, and we have to adjust to them as the game goes along.”

One of those adjustments for the Spurs will be to make more shots. San Antonio missed 17 straight in the fourth quarter and lost Game 1 of its best-of-seven series 93-87 to Denver on Sunday.

“You got to get to four – we have one and we want to get to two before they get to one,” Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin said. “The next three will be as tough as this one was. They’re going to try to jump on us early – they need this one.”

Martin scored 11 points with nine rebounds and disrupted Tim Duncan on the defensive end. The Spurs All-Star power forward couldn’t get comfortable after missing a dozen late-season games with a sprained right ankle.

“I’m not going to let him dictate what he wants to do – if I do that, it’s going to be a long night,” said Martin, who played for New Jersey when the Spurs beat the Nets for their second NBA title in 2003. “I can be a pest. I’m going to hit you, I’m going to push you, I’m going to hold you. I’m going to keep coming. It’s the playoffs.”

Game 2 is Wednesday night, with Game 3 to follow Saturday in Denver.

San Antonio made its first three attempts in the fourth quarter Sunday, the last one a 14-foot jumper by Glenn Robinson, to take an 81-76 lead with 10:20 remaining. But the Spurs didn’t make another field goal until Robert Horry buried a 3-pointer with about 10 seconds left and Denver safely ahead.

Duncan (18 points, 11 rebounds) missed all seven of his attempts, none farther than 8 feet out.

It was an embarrassing collapse for the Spurs, who are sticking to their usual businesslike approach and focusing on the numbers.

“We don’t need added motivation,” Duncan said. “It’s a must-win situation in a seven-game series going to their house. They have home-court advantage, so we need to get this one. We need to play smarter and better.”

The Spurs were just as disturbed by the way they played in the final minute of the first half as they were with their fourth-quarter field-goal drought.

San Antonio went up 52-44 on a dunk by Manu Ginobili (23 points) on an inbounds pass from Tony Parker with 33 seconds left in the half.

But Andre Miller, who scored a postseason career-high 31 points, came back with a jumper and Marcus Camby converted a three-point play to make it 52-49 with 5.7 seconds remaining. Ginobili then picked up an offensive foul and Miller hit a toss from near midcourt as time ran out to even it up.

“The end of the second quarter was a killer emotionally,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “You just don’t want to lose those leads, especially against a team like Denver that’s playing the way they’re playing.”

The Nuggets entered the playoffs playing better than any team in the conference, winning 25 of 29 since the All-Star Game.

Camby said Denver wanted at least a split of the first two games in San Antonio. Now, however, the Nuggets are feeling more ambitious.

“The opportunity is there for us to win two,” he said, “so we have to seize the moment if we can.”

AP-ES-04-25-05 1713EDT