Oklahoma City Thunder at Denver Nuggets
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Denver Nuggets will go for their seventh straight win at home over the Oklahoma City Thunder, when the two teams collide at the Pepsi Center Wednesday Night.
Oklahoma City’s four game winning streak came to an end with a 101-94 loss against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday. Oklahoma City will now focus their attention on winning in Denver for the first time since 2007, when they were still playing in Seattle.
Denver comes in off a 110-97 loss at San Antonio on Sunday, snapping their three game winning streak. Denver continues to deal with all the trade speculations, and while its likely having some impact on their performance, they have won three straight at home and are 18-4 at the Pepsi Center this season.
Taking a look at the spreads for this game, oddsmakers have the Nuggets favored by 3.5-points over the Thunder with the total sitting at 218.5.
Oklahoma City kept it close against the Lakers despite shooting just 42.5% from the field, while allowing the Lakers to shoot 50% Russell Westbrook had 32 points and 12 assists, and was a big reason why the Thunder kept this game close. Kevin Durant had just 24 points on 8-24 shooting, and was just 1-8 from three-point range. The Thunder as a team shot just 2 for 22 from behind the arc.
The Thunder beat the Nuggets 114-106 at home back on Christmas Day, thanks to 44 points from Durant, but Denver was without Carmelo Anthony, and shot 52.9% from the field.
The Nuggets a trip back home will get them going, as they really looked out of it against the Spurs. Anthony had just 12 points on 5-17 shooting and turned the ball over four times. The good for Denver is Anthony has played much better at home, and is averaging 29.2 points in his last nine home games against the Thunder franchise.
Anthony isn’t the only one playing well at home, the Nuggets are averaging 129.7 while giving up just 99.7 in their last three home games, but two of those wins came against the Suns and Cavaliers, and other against a Miami team that was without Lebron James. Still you have to give the Nuggets credit for how well they played in those games.
While I think Oklahoma City is playing great right now, I think Denver is the way to go in this game. The Thunder really wanted that win against the Lakers, and could struggle to bring that same energy against the Nuggets, who have had the last two days off.
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