NBA: Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Lakers Preview, Odds, Prediction

The replay of the West Finals takes place at Staples on Thursday night, as the LA Lakers host the Denver Nuggets. This is one of the most anticipating games of the entire week, with Nikola Jokic leading his Denver and coming to the City of Angels to prove that he has what it takes to be the MVP, and also, to show that his Nuggets won’t make peace with last year’s failure. On the other side, the champs are back home after a long time, and they can’t wait to step out on their floor and shot that they won’t back down for one inch ahead of the contenders.

Preview

Denver Nuggets (12-8, +190) are 7-3 in the past 10 games, but with an encouraging trend in their performances. Mike Malone’s guys had just one defeat in the latest seven events, which was in San Antonio, 119-109, in the last event on their five-game road trip.

However, they would bounce back pretty soon, trashing the league-leading at the time, Utah Jazz, who experienced the power of Nikola Jokic from first hand. The Joker made Rudy Gobert, one of the best defenders in the past 20 years, look like an amateur, dropping 47 points and having 12 boards in 37 minutes. In the opening 15 minutes, Jokic already reached 33 buckets. Enough said.

What might be problematic for the Nuggets and the Joker is the fact that they should have played against the Pistons on Monday night, but that game was postponed minutes before the tip-off. That is something that might have interrupted their rhythm.

Los Angeles Lakers (16-6, -238) snapped their perfect road record during their recent tour through the East. Interestingly, they wouldn’t lose to Milwaukee Bucks, but the Philadelphia 76ers, who apparently know how to play against LeBron and AD.

After that match, the purple and gold lost another one, in Detroit vs. Pistons, but they appeared without Anthony Davis in Michigan, which was a major setback. However, the champions quickly bounced back into the saddle, beating the Celtics and the Hawks, indicating the crisis is over.

We need to say that the game in Atlanta saw the LAL winning solely because of ferocious defense that held Trae Young and his teammates to just 99 points.

Head to Head Games

The Lakers eliminated Denver in the Western Finals in six matches, but many suggest that the champions had a lot of help from the referees, who would have Jokic filled with fouls early on. Regarding the contests in the regular part of the 2019/20 season, the Lakers won three and the Nuggets just one.

Prediction

The line for the total points is 219.5, and for us, it is too low, meaning that we need to take advantage of the same right away. With all due respect to AD and Harrell, Jokic is unstoppable now, and the only way of restraining the Serbian center is to get him into foul trouble. Yet, we are more than sure that he knows about that now and that he won’t bother playing hard D.

The Nuggets aren’t anything special in defense and often allow 110 points, but on the other side, they know to score way more. All this simply forces us to recommend betting on Over 219.5 points.

 

Here is the link for Friday’s match between the Pelicans and the Pacers.