NBA - 719 Denver Nuggets @ 720 Portland Trailblazers
Projected Line: Portland by 2 points
Denver had back to back games at Washington and Charlotte, then they played at home against the Lakers in a game where they had a big effort of course, and they will now play at Portland, just to go back home to face Oklahoma City Friday Night. Therefore, not only this is a poor physical spot for Denver tonight, as it is also a poor spot in terms of mindset, as they are already thinking about their game against Oklahoma City right now.
Portland has been having a lot of success against Denver this season and they are able to force the Nuggets to shoot a lot from the perimeter on the games between these two teams, an area where Denver struggles and they have shown exactly that with 0-22 3pts and 9-25 3pts in their two previous games against the Blazers this season, for a combined of 9-47 3pts! The Blazers aren't a poor transition defensive team (#11 in the league) and they are also decent on pick and roll ball handler defense by being #13 in the league. Portland's main defensive problem is on the interior, but it's more on 1*1 than in terms of team help. Denver likes to pound their opponents on the down low, but they don't have a frontcourt player who can attack 1*1. They pound at the paint via offensive rebounds and dunks from Kenneth Faried and JaVale McGee, so the Blazers's poor 1*1 interior defense doesn't get exposed big time against Denver.
There is also a big reason why Portland is competitive against Denver. The Blazers are a jump shooting team and they have the perfect matchup in the Nuggets's defense that is #30 in the league on spot up plays! With Denver playing on the road, on a terrible spot and with a very poor matchup for their defense, I can only expect Portland to take advantage of that and pick up a nice win over the Nuggets tonight.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 720 Portland Trailblazers (+2,5) @ -115 / 1.87 on Bovada
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