Nuggets will Beat Up on Warriors

Denver Nuggets (37-19) vs Golden State Warriors (16-40)

While college basketball betting is starting to heat up in advance of March Madness, there is still a lot of NBA basketball to be played. When the Denver Nuggets travel to Oakland to take on the Golden State Warriors, it will be a match-up between two teams going in opposite directions. After starting the season in promising fashion, the Warriors have fallen hard and now sit 15 games out of a playoff spot and are looking to play their young talent to see where they need to improve their team over the summer. Denver is leading its division and has won three of its last five over powerhouses Cleveland, Dallas and Boston.

Primetime Performers

Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony is third in the league scoring 29.2 points a game and after missing eight games, prior to the All Star break, his scoring has slipped to just under 25 a game but his assists and three-point percentage are up to five and 39. He can play inside or out and betting tips say with Corey Maggette out he should dominate Anthony Morrow; the likely replacement.

Warriors: Monta Ellis has taken the move to shooting guard very well and has only allowed his scoring to dip a small amount. He is undersized but with Aaron Afflalo starting for Denver, he will not have to work too hard on defence and will be able to spend all his energy at the offensive end. He is a volume shooter with a bad three-point percentage but when hot, he can take down good teams almost single handily; as seen by his 37 points in a wins over Boston and Dallas.

X-Factors

Nuggets: Chauncey Billups will have the task of not only controlling the Nugget offence against a team that leads the league in steals, but also controlling the guard trio of Ellis, Stephen Curry and C.J. Watson who have scored 132 points in the past two games. Averaging 20 and six assists, he will be a hard guard for whoever is covering him as he has a very good post-up game for a guard and is much larger than the Warriors guards.

Warriors: Stephen Curry will be going up against a bigger, physical and much more experienced guard in Billups and will be pressed at both ends of the floor. The rookie out of Davidson is having a great rookie season and since the new year has been averaging 19.5 points, 6 assists and is working his way into ‘Rookie of the Year’ conversations.

The Matchup

Golden State is devastated by injuries and will miss Raja Bell, Vladimir Radmanovic, Corey Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike and Anthony Randolph out of its regular rotation. With the loss of manpower, the Warriors have little coming off the bench outside of Watson; who has scored 23.4 in his last five games. Free sportsbetting experts know Denver is too good for this banged up team and will coast in a high scoring game as both teams are willing to play an up-tempo game.

Pick: Nuggets