NBA: Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets Preview, Odds, Prediction

The Golden State Warriors travel to Denver to play the second of back-to-back games with the Nuggets. The first took place in San Francisco two days ago, and the guests from Colorado froze the hosts, posting a win that just a few expected. GSW is still first despite losing that one, but they can’t afford to record another slip, otherwise, the Phoenix Suns will take over the No.1 place in the conference and the league. As for the Nuggets, a win is a must because it means staying above the .500-mark and in the playoff zone. This is a promising game, and that is why we decided to cover it in this article.

Preview

Golden State Warriors (27-7, -145) snapped a three-game winning streak with an 89-86 loss at home to the Nuggets. The Dub Nation opened the contest slowly, allowing the guests to reach a double-digit difference pretty early on and create enough of a gap. Even though Steph Curry had his show in the final 12 minutes, the hosts couldn’t flip the result.

The best they did was tying the score, having the chance to force the overtime, but Andre Iguodala’s shot went wide. Steph Curry broke the 3,000-mark for three-pointers, but we are more than sure that it didn’t cover up a bitter taste over this defeat.

He didn’t have a single FG in the first quarter, but somehow reached 23 points in the end. Andre Wiggins scored 21 with eight boards, while Gary Payton II added 11.

Denver Nuggets (17-616, +150) have back-to-back wins, against the Clippers and the Warriors, and both of them were on the road. The injuries have plagued the Nuggets team, leaving Nikola Jokic as the lone superstar available to Mike Malone.

The Serb is on the pace of breaking several records, one of them regarding PER rating. He currently averages 25.8 points, 14 boards, and 7.1 assists, all while shooting 55.9% from the field. He would recently have back-to-back 20-20-5 games, proving that along with Curry, he is the only other MVP contender.

The Joker scored 22 buckets had 18 boards and five assists on Tuesday. He had help from Will Barton, who added 21 buckets, and these two were the only guys with double-digit productivity among the Nuggets.

Head to Head Games

The game at Chase Center saw the guests winning 89-86. They would win the opening sequence 31-16 and survive the latter stages of the contest. Both teams had a poor shooting percentage for three, Nuggets 24.2% and the Warriors 31.3%.

Prediction

The Warriors need to bounce back following the last loss, which they suffered only due to a poor first quarter. We need to stress out that Curry probably had the worst 12 minutes of the entire season, but that once he got back in the rhythm, the Nuggets couldn’t control him. It was pure luck that the guests from Colorado went back home with a win. The spread on the Warriors in this event is -4.5 points, and in our opinion, they will cover that without some particular problems. We really don’t think that Curry might have poor back-to-back performances.

Pick: Warriors -4.5

Here is the preview for 76ers vs. Nets game