Denver Nuggets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Line at -4.5
Friday night’s NBA featured game had the Denver Nuggets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder with a line of -4.5 in favor of OK City. The total on this game was set at 202.5. All odds available at Sportsbook.com here.
The surging Oklahoma City Thunder and the surprising Denver Nuggets, two Northwest Division powerhouse squads, will face off on Friday night in Oklahoma in what could be a preview of their potential first-round playoff matchup.
The young but extremely talented Thunder squad has already clinched the Northwest Division title after their impressive win against the Nuggets on Tuesday.
Superstar Kevin Durant was ecstatic with their first division title, but he and his team declared that they aren’t contented and they vowed to play even harder in their remaining regular-season games.
“Of course the first one means a lot, especially after a few seasons I've been through since I've been in this league,” said Durant when asked about winning the division title for the first time in his career. “It's a big turnaround for us, but we've just got to move past it.”
Oklahoma City (52-26) still has an outside chance of finishing third in the Western Conference, something that they would definitely try to achieve, knowing that it could give them a huge confidence boost going into the post-season.
But on the other hand, the Nuggets (48-30) are expected to do their best in order to avenge their defeat on Tuesday and also solidify their grip on the fifth spot in the Western Conference.
The Nuggets are absolutely one of the most surprising teams in the league as of late. Despite giving up their top two players, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, before the trade deadline, the Nuggets have record 16 wins against only five defeats since the blockbuster trade with the New York Knicks.
Despite having new faces in their squad, head coach George Karl and the rest of the Nuggets are extremely playing well as if they have been together for more than a year, and veteran forward Kenyon Martin knows that are slowly peaking at the right time.
“Everybody's starting to come together after the moves we made,” said Kenyon Martin, who averaged 10.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in their first three games against the Thunder. “No better time than now to start playing your best basketball. You don't want to go into the playoffs limping.”
The Thunder-Nuggets showdown is expected to go down-the-wire, but with a deeper and more energetic bench, and considering that they will be playing in front of their very loud crowd at the Oklahoma City Arena, the Thunder will be the favorite to win on Friday night.
But don’t count the Nuggets out since they are expected to be more aggressive, considering the fact that they are trying to get the psychological advantage in their potential playoff matchup.
If the Nuggets want to escape with a road win on Friday night, Karl and company should stop the offensive onslaught of Durant, who averaged 32.7 points in their first three meetings this season, including a 44-point explosion during their Christmas Day showdown.
The reigning scoring champion also single-handedly carried the Thunder in the final quarter of their game last Tuesday, scoring 11 points in the final seven minutes of the game that sealed their first ever division title.
Although the Thunder will be favored in their Friday-night matchup, the Nuggets are capable of defeating them on the road as long as they could stop the Thunder’s scoring machine, Durant.
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