{"id":10499,"date":"2010-11-11T13:49:07","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T18:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10499"},"modified":"2010-11-11T13:49:07","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T18:49:07","slug":"free-pro-basketball-picks-los-angeles-lakers-at-denver-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-pro-basketball-picks-los-angeles-lakers-at-denver-nuggets-10499\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Pro Basketball Picks: Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets
\nThursday, 11\/11\/10, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Los Angeles -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 210
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 211
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Los Angeles -155 \/ Denver +135<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony will need to be great to pull off a home underdog victory tonight against the undefeated Los Angeles Lakers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Angeles is aiming to start a season 9-0 for just the second time in franchise history after earning a 99-94 home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves last time out.\u00a0 \u201cWe let this team stay in the game,\u201d said forward Matt Barnes about the victory.\u00a0 The Lakers will need a much better effort in tonight\u2019s game against a team that is always tough in the Mike High City.\u00a0 \u201cDenver always plays us tough out there, so it\u2019s going to be a huge challenge for us,\u201d said star Kobe Bryant.\u00a0 Many insiders have noted that Bryant is wearing much less protection over his arthritic right index finger this season.\u00a0 He is averaging 24.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, while playing just 31.8 minutes a game so far.\u00a0 Last season, the five-time champion guard averaged 22.0 points on 37.5 percent shooting against the Nuggets.\u00a0 The team is 2-0 ATS on the road this season and currently a smallish road favorite on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Lakers dropped last season\u2019s series with denver 1-3 after taking the previous season series from the Nuggets 3-1.\u00a0 Los Angeles is 6-4 in its last 10 overall regular season meetings with Denver and 25-13 all-time under the direction of head coach Phil Jackson.\u00a0 This is the first time under Jackson that the Lakers have started a season 8-0 or better.\u00a0 One reason that this team may be more dangerous in the eyes of opponents this season is their improved 3-point shooting, currently sitting at an impressive 43.5 percent for the season.\u00a0 The leaders from long range are Lamar Odom (10-15), Steve Blake (14-28) and Shannon Brown (12-24).<\/p>\n

Denver returns home after suffering an embarrassing 144-113 loss at Indiana and will need to improve upon its perimeter defense to be competitive in this high-profile matchup.\u00a0 The Nuggets allowed the Pacers to hit 16 of 30 3-pointers on Tuesday, while also letting them connect on 20 of 21 shots in a 54-point third quarter.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully we will use this to respond well to the Lakers,\u201d said head coach George Karl.\u00a0 \u201cThis goes in the bad column.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to go negative.\u201d\u00a0 A positive in the defeat was the play of guard Ty Lawson, who scored 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, entering the game averaging just 6.6 points a contest.\u00a0 The team is 4-4 ATS this season and is 20-9 ATS after a loss by 10 points or more.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets will need a big offensive game from Carmelo Anthony tonight after scoring just 13 points in Indiana, snapping a streak of nine straight 20-plus scoring games.\u00a0 Nobody knows this more than Bryant in analyzing tonight\u2019s contest.\u00a0 \u201cHe can shoot the long ball, shoot the mid-range, he can post up,\u201d he commented on Anthony.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s a complete player.\u201d\u00a0 Denver has won four of the last five regular season meetings against the Lakers and six of the last eight non-playoff meetings in the Pepsi Center.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note though, Los Angeles is the only team in the NBA that owns a winning record against the Nuggets in the city of Denver with a 41-31 all-time mark.<\/p>\n

Bettors will find that the Lakers are 3-8-1 ATS as a road favorite of 0.5 to 4.5 points, while the Nuggets are 3-8-3 ATS as an underdog.<\/p>\n

The NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports are rolling right along and offering season packages at amazing prices.\u00a0 Don\u2019t miss out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets Thursday, 11\/11\/10, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Los Angeles -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 210 Current Total:\u00a0 211 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Los Angeles -155 \/ Denver +135 Los Angeles is aiming to start a season 9-0 for just the second time in franchise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[49,526,3636,67,68,3637,939],"class_list":["post-10499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-george-karl","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-pepsi-center","tag-phil-jackson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10500,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10499\/revisions\/10500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}