Boston Celtics at Denver Nuggets – Thursday, 10:35 pm Eastern – TNT
Boston Celtics at Denver Nuggets Thursday, 10:35 pm Eastern TNT
The Boston Celtics will try and avoid looking past the new look Denver Nuggets on Thursday in the late game on TNT. The Celtics came out of the All-Star break in strong fashion as they routed Golden State on Tuesday while Denver played surprisingly well without Carmelo Anthony as they defeated Memphis.
Denver will have many of their new players available on Thursday although it is unclear how head coach George Karl will work them into the lineup. Karl has already said that Ty Lawson will be the point guard so that leaves Raymond Felton coming off the bench. Danilo Gallinari could end up being traded before this game begins so only Wilson Chandler figures to get extensive playing time. The other player coming over to the Nuggets from New York was center Timofey Mozgov and he figures to backup Nene. Karl has said he may just keep the four newcomers together for a while so look for them to come off the bench at the same time for the first few games. The Nuggets won on Tuesday night at home by a score of 120-107 against Memphis. None of the newcomers played in that game so it was up to the other players on Denver to come through and they did, led by J.R. Smith who had 26 points.
Boston is coming off a very impressive win on Tuesday as they routed Golden State 115-93. All four Boston All-Stars had excellent games led by Kevin Garnett who had 24 points and 12 rebounds.
Here are the betting stats for Thursday's game. The Celtics are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 Thursday games. The Nuggets are 7-2 ATS in their last 9 vs. the Eastern Conference. The Nuggets are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Thursday games. The Nuggets are 1-10 ATS in their last 11 vs. the Atlantic. The home team is 10-2 ATS in the last 12 meetings in this series and the Celtics are 1-5 ATS in the last 6 meetings at Denver.
The Under is 5-2 in the Celtics last 7 vs. the Northwest. The Over is 8-1 in the Nuggets last 9 vs. the Eastern Conference. The Over is 5-1 in the Nuggets last 6 overall. In this series, the Over is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings in Denver.