Denver Nuggets vs New Orleans Pelicans NBA Betting Preview & Odds!
NBA action on Thursday night and we will see the Denver Nuggets travel to Smoothie King Center to take on the New Orleans Pelicans. Local TV will carry this game, which has a start time of 8:00 pm EST.
Current betting odds for this game have the have the Nuggets listed as 6.5 point favorites, while the total has been set at 209.5.
Head-To-Head This Year: Denver won the 1st meeting 115-98 as 6 point road dogs… New Orleans won the 2nd meeting 130-125 as 1 point road dogs.
The Denver Nuggets haven’t had a good year at all, but they are playing a little better down the stretch as they have won 4 of their last 7 games, including a 109-105 road win over a very beat up Memphis squad last night. That was the first time they beat them this year. Denver is still just 15-24 SU on the road this year, but they are 23-15-1 ATS in those games. The Nuggets are still without Danilo Gallinari (19.5 ppg) at least until mid-April, while Jusuf Nurkic (7.8 ppg) is listed as questionable for this game with an illness. Will Barton is the team’s leading scorer right now as 14.9 ppg, while D.J. Augustine is the team’s best long range threat at 44.9% and he is 3rd on the team in scoring at 12.8 ppg. Kenneth Faried leads the team in rebounding at 8.8 rpg and he averages 12.7 ppg as well, while Emmanuel Mudiay (12.3 ppg) and Gary Harris (12.1 ppg) round out the double digit scorers for a very balanced offensive team. Overall the Nuggets are 16th in the league in scoring, putting up 102.2 ppg, while also ranking 21st in shooting overall, 23rd from long range and 14th from the charity stripe. The defensive numbers are not that good as they come in ranked 22nd in points allowed, giving up 104.8 ppg, while also ranking 22nd defensive FG% overall and 27th in 3-point defense.On the road the Nuggets have averaged 100.3 ppg on 44.0% shooting, while allowing 104.0 ppg on 46.1% shooting.
Trends: The Nuggets are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games following a straight up win, while the road team is 5-0 ATS the last 5 in the series, but Denver is just 2-5 ATS in their last 7 after allowing 100 points or more in their previous game and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 after scoring 100 points or more in their previous game. The Over is 6-1 in their last 7 after scoring 100 points or more in their previous game, while the Under is 12-4 in the last 16 meetings in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Pelicans are off a closer than expected 8 point loss at San Antonio last night as they were 19 point dogs in the game and with good reason as they have shut down many of their key players for the rest of the year, while the Spurs were at full strength. The Pelicans are now just 4-14 in their last 17 games and 27-47 overall, but they have gone a decent 19-18 at home. This is a team that has been hit hard by injuries as they have lost Anthony Davis (24.3 ppg), Jrue Holiday (16.8 ppg), Ryan Anderson (17.0 ppg & 6.0 rpg) and Alonzo Gee (4.5 ppg) for the remainder of the season. Tyreke Evans is the team’s remaining leading scorer at 15.2 ppg, while Tim Frazier has averaged 12.5 ppg, in the 8 games since coming over from Portland.. Norris Cole (10.6 ppg) is listed as questionable for this one, while James Ennis played his first game since coming over from Memphis in late February and had 13 points vs the Spurs. Overall the Pelicans are 15th in the league in scoring, putting up 102.6 ppg, while also ranking 19th in shooting overall, 13th in 3-point shooting and 12th from the charity stripe. The defense has been very bad this year as they come in ranked 25th in points allowed, giving up 106.1 ppg, while also ranking 26th in defensive FG% overall and 25th in 3-point defense. At home the Pelicans have averaged 105.8 ppg on 45.7% shooting, while allowing just 106.2 ppg on 46.4% shooting.
Trends: The Pelicans are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a straight up loss, but just 3-7 ATS in their last 10 home games vs. a team with a losing road record and 7-19 ATS in their last 26 games following a ATS win. The Over is 16-5-1 their last 22 vs the Western Conference, while the Under is 20-6 in their last 26 games playing on 0 days rest.
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