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

The Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors meet in Game 2 of their Western Conference playoff series. The Warriors have a 1-0 lead gained in the previous event, once they had fantastic Jordan Poole to lead them in the second and the third period. That was when the hosts broke down the rivals who had lots of remarks on the officiating criteria. Nikola Jokic in particular. Yet, that is the story for the Nuggets in the previous playoffs. On the other hand, the Warriors mixed things a little bit, which brought the result right away.

Preview

Denver Nuggets (+240) wasn’t going to speak about the officials following Game 1. His Nuggets had 13 free throws altogether, while on the other side, the Warriors shot 29 times from the foul line. Jokic himself had only two, and let us remind you that this guy is the frontrunner for the NBA MVP award and the reigning MVP. Yet, the lack of respect he gets from the officials is unreal.

Jokic scored 25 points and had 10 boards with six assists and three steals. He had a lot of help coming from Will Barton who scored 24 points, adding six rebounds and five assists. Though, these two were alone in their battle against the Dub Nation, and that is why the Nuggets lost.

We are very interested in seeing the reaction after Jokic’s and Denver’s criticism regarding the officiating criteria. For the moment, the Serb is by far the most disrespected NBA MVP in the league’s history.

Golden State Warriors (-300) were in the mood for playing in Game 1. They shot 52.4% from the field, and made 16 threes, but there was one thing that surprised all of us. Steph Curry didn’t start the game but was on the bench.

Steve Kerr decided to leave Jordan Poole in the starting lineup, and the sharpshooting guard returned that in the best possible way, scoring 30 points. He was 9-for-13 from the field and made five threes in seven shots.

On the other hand, Steph came off the bench to score 16 buckets, having the same as Andrew Wiggins. The former top pick added nine rebounds to this. Klay Thompson was solid with 19 buckets in 29 minutes, having made five threes in 10 shots from behind the arc.

Head to Head

The first game saw the Warriors winning 123-107. They’ve won the middle two quarters with a combined result of 64-43. That was when they made the difference and, until the end, calmly kept the lead. Surprisingly, the Warriors had dominance in the air, limiting the Nuggets to just 35 boards, while on the other side, they had 41.

Prediction

The Warriors showed that they have the luxury of keeping Steph limited and still beat the Nuggets without too much trouble. They have the home-court advantage, more options in the attack and also, the Dub Nations is better in defense than the rivals from Colorado. Denver has just Jokic and nothing more, so we have to say that the Nuggets have no chances of making a break tonight. Our final pick is Warriors to win and to cover the spread.

Pick: Warriors -7