Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Denver Nuggets – 8/3/20 NBA Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder meet Monday in NBA action at The Arena.

The Denver Nuggets look for a bounce back performance after losing their bubble opener to the Miami Heat. The Denver Nuggets are averaging 110.3 points on 47 percent shooting and allowing 107.7 points on 46 percent shooting. Nikola Jokic is averaging 20.2 points and 10.2 rebounds while Jamal Murray is averaging 18.8 points and 4.8 assists. Will Barton is the third double-digit scorer and Paul Millsap is grabbing 5.9 rebounds. The Denver Nuggets are shooting 35.5 percent from beyond the arc and 77.5 percent from the free thitem line. The Denver Nuggets are allowing 34.7 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 44.2 rebounds per game.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have won four straight games and just beat the Utah Jazz in their bubble opener. The Oklahoma City Thunder are averaging 110.8 points on 47.4 percent shooting and allowing 108.1 points on 45.6 percent shooting. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 19.3 points and six rebounds while Danilo Gallinari is averaging 19.1 points and two assists. Dennis Schroder is the third double-digit scorer and Chris Paul is dishing 6.8 assists. The Oklahoma City Thunder are shooting 35.5 percent from beyond the arc and 79.7 percent from the free thitem line. The Oklahoma City Thunder are allowing 34.3 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 42.7 rebounds per game.

The Nuggets are 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings in Oklahoma City and 10-1 ATS in the last 11 meetings.

The Denver Nuggets are a deep team that can still compete at a high level despite being undermanned. However, the Nuggets are still without three key players in Gary Harris, Will Barton and Jamal Murray, and it’s asking a lot of them to win these games against teams fighting for playoff seeding. The Nuggets are missing pretty much their entire backcourt, and that’s cary when going up against one of the best point guards in the game in CP3. We also saw the Nuggets fall apart in the second half of their first game, which could be a sign of just not having enough to last 48 minutes. 

I’ll lay the chalk with the Oklahoma City Thunder.