San Antonio Spurs vs. Denver Nuggets Preview
Where: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO
When: Thursday, January 5, 9:00 PM ET
Line: San Antonio Spurs (-7) at Denver Nuggets (+7); total: 213.0 – view all NBA lines
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Betting on the San Antonio Spurs (-7)
Coming off a bad loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the San Antonio Spurs bounced back on Tuesday with their most resounding win of the season by humbling the second-best team in the East in the Toronto Raptors, 110-82.
San Antonio continued to excel in all facets of the game that evening. The team shot a mind-numbing 55.1 percent from the field on Tuesday and also held the Raptors to a season-low 37.3-percent field-goal shooting.
What’s fun about the Spurs this season is that they’ve not only exhibited their typical lock-down defense – they’re second in the league at just 97.8 points allowed per game – they’re also a top-10 team now when it comes to offense, sporting dazzling averages of 47.6 percent from the floor and 41.1 percent from the three-point line.
Case in point: the Spurs had three 20-point outings on Tuesday from their All-Stars Kawhi Leonard (25) LaMarcus Aldridge (23) and Tony Parker (season-high 26). The 34-year-old Parker’s performances of late have him turning back the hands of time, as he’s averaging 18.8 points on 56.9 percent shooting over the last four games. He was also mainly responsible for limiting Toronto’s Kyle Lowry to a season-low six points on 2-of-9 shooting.
San Antonio, which currently owns the best road record in the NBA at 16-3, will look to continue its rampage against the middling Nuggets in Denver this Thursday. Chances are the Spurs will make quick work of the Nuggets indeed, especially when you consider that Gregg Popovich’s boys have taken nine of their last 10 meetings against one another (albeit just 6-4 ATS).
And while that one loss to the Nuggets came just this past April, it was only by a mere four-point deficit and San Antonio didn’t even play four of their five starters at that as the team was already gearing up for the playoffs.
Betting on the Denver Nuggets (+7)
With a 120-113 loss at home to the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, the Denver Nuggets are coming unglued despite some flashes of brilliance.
Danilo Gallinari was one of six Denver players to score in double-digits that night and led the way with 24 points. Serbian big man Nikola Jokic pitched in 18 points as well, and he and Gallinari have combined to pack quite the offensive punch over the last five games, with both European standouts each averaging over 20 points per game during that stretch.
But while Denver’s offensive output hasn’t cooled off yet (fifth in the NBA with a little over 108 points scored per contest), its defense is what’s really eating the team up from inside. That D has allowed its opposition to shoot 47 percent from the field this season, which is exactly how efficient the Spurs have been on offense themselves. And over the past three games, the Nuggets have surrendered a whopping 123.7 points per game, which includes outbursts from two mediocre opponents in Sacramento and Philadelphia.
Obviously, the Nuggets ended up losing those three games in succession and they’ve now been defeated in five of their last seven (with an even worse 1-6 record against the spread). Take that and the fact that the Spurs have owned them of late, and it really does seem that we have another dominant victory for San Antonio on tap this Thursday, much to the dismay of the Mile High faithful.
Writer’s Prediction
The Spurs (-7) outgun the Nuggets, 121-108.
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