New Orleans Pelicans vs Denver Nuggets Best Bet: Nuggets To Claim Pivotal Road Win
New Orleans Pelicans vs Denver Nuggets Best Bet: Tuesday, January 24th
The New Orleans Pelicans host the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night in another battle between two elite Western Conference teams. Availability, like was the case in our Kings vs Grizzlies game last night, is a major factor here.
Brandon Ingram is doubtful, Zion Williamson is out, and Naji Marshall is questionable for the home team. Two-time MVP Nikola Jokic is questionable for the Nuggets, along with Peyton Watson, Michael Porter Jr and Bones Hyland. Jokic has missed consecutive games, representing an uncharacteristically long absence for the NBA’s ironman.
Where others are ultra-cautious with injuries, Jokic tends to return quickly from physical issues and it wouldn’t be a surprise if his status improved before tip-off this evening.
On the other side of this matchup, New Orleans has finally seen Ingram return to five-on-five after injuring his toe in November. The former Laker could make his comeback here, but he will likely be on a minutes restriction and may have some rust to play through.
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New Orleans Pelicans vs Denver Nuggets Preview
Wed, Jan 25. 01:00 (UK time)
This is only the second meeting between these teams this season after New Orleans won by 15 in early December. Williamson played on that occasion, and the Pels benefited from an outlier shooting night courtesy of Jose Alvarado draining eight threes on his way to 38 points.
Obviously, the availability of Jokic is an unknown here. The spread is narrowly in New Orleans’ favour at the moment, but that would change quickly if Jokic is healthy, even with Denver owning a so-so record on the road. Denver is 20.8 points per 100 possessions better with Jokic on the floor, but they recently beat the Pacers without the Sombor native. New Orleans is also 23rd in net rating over the last 10 with a 3-7 record.
The Pels are not the same team without Williamson. They are 8.1 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor, and own a -0.8 net rating in non-Zion minutes. While not quite as dependent on Williamson as Denver are on Jokic, it is also worth noting Jamal Murray’s improvement since the teams last met.
New Orleans Pelicans vs Denver Nuggets Best Bet
New Orleans’ only wins this calendar year have come against Houston, Washington and Detroit. This is a team falling off the pace set by the Nuggets at the summit of the Western Conference.
Even with uncertainty over Jokic, this is a great price on the Nuggets to win. They are 13-8 against teams over .500, while New Orleans has won just eight of 25 in such matchups.
It’s a shame we won’t get to see these teams going head-to-head at full health, but this should still be a good game to watch, as Denver aim to continue this spectacular run.
- Selection: Denver Nuggets Moneyline
- Best Odds: 2.02 (vBet)
- Stakes: 4/10
Odds as of 12:00 pm January 24th, 2023. Odds may now differ.
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