{"id":11338,"date":"2010-12-08T08:09:54","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T13:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11338"},"modified":"2010-12-08T08:09:54","modified_gmt":"2010-12-08T13:09:54","slug":"nba-betting-preview-denver-nuggets-at-boston-celtics-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-betting-preview-denver-nuggets-at-boston-celtics-picks-predictions-11338\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Betting Preview: Denver Nuggets at Boston Celtics Picks & Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets at Boston Celtics
\nWednesday, 12\/8\/10, 7:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Boston Celtics are 7-0 ATS in their last seven games when playing with two days rest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denver is hoping the second attempt to gain head coach George Karl\u2019s 1000th career win will be more successful on its second try than the first, dropping a 100-98 contest in Charlotte last night.\u00a0 \u201cIt would have been something I\u2019d have remembered if I won my 1000th here,\u201d Karl commented.\u00a0 \u201cBut hopefully we\u2019ll get it on this trip.\u201d\u00a0 The Nuggets are 3-6 on the road this season, dropping five of their last six, while garnering a dominating 10-1 mark at the Pepsi Center.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve to to play a little better basketball to win on the road,\u201d Karl stated after the latest loss.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be a little smarter, a little tougher.\u201d\u00a0 All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony will need to step up his performance in order for this club to start winning away from Denver, averaging 15.4 points over his last five games.\u00a0 Denver is 0-2 ATS versus Atlantic Division teams this year and make sure to check out the NBA lines page for movement on this game.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets have lost 17 of the last 20 games against the Celtics in Boston, but two of those three wins have come in the last six seasons.\u00a0 The two teams have split the season series each of the last five seasons, while the overall series has been dead-even since 2002-03 (8-8).\u00a0 Denver\u2019s loss in Charlotte snapped a season-best seven-game overall winning streak.\u00a0 Offensively, the team fell just short of the 100-point plateau, falling to 1-5 on the season when failing to reach that mark, including 0-5 on the road.\u00a0 The team is also accustomed to close games during the 2010-11 campaign, as 14 of its 20 games have been decided by single digits.<\/p>\n

Boston enters with a 16-4 overall mark on the season and has tallied a 3-2 mark versus the Western Conference early on.\u00a0 The Celtics will be focused on the health of point guard Rajon Rondo tonight, as he was unable to play against the Nets last time out due to lingering foot and hamstring injuries.\u00a0 \u201cIt was literally about two seconds before the game was going to start,\u201d coach Doc Rivers said about Rondo sitting on Sunday.\u00a0 \u201cI usually don\u2019t like that.\u00a0 It was really a last second cancellation.\u201d\u00a0 Boston would obviously be best served to have him in the lineup, as he averaged nearly a triple-double last year against the Nuggets, scoring 13.0 points, grabbing 8.0 rebounds and dishing out 13.0 assists.\u00a0 The squad is 21-12 ATS when playing with two days rest.<\/p>\n

The Celtics aren\u2019t looking at the standings heading into a stretch of playing three games in four nights, but many front office folks have started to turn its focus to what\u2019s ahead.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s important is playing well late,\u201d said general manager Danny Ainge.\u00a0 \u201cNow is important, too, but I don\u2019t think anyone in their right mind has written off Miami or Los Angeles.\u201d\u00a0 Boston\u2019s last victory was impressive due to opening up a 20-point lead at the half, after ending the first quarter with just a two-point lead.\u00a0 \u201cThey jumped all over us in the second quarter and we never recovered,\u201d said New Jersey coach Avery Johnson.\u00a0 \u201cThey looked like a championship team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in the Nuggets 5-13-2 ATS mark with zero days rest, while the Celtics are 2-6-1 ATS in their last nine home games.<\/p>\n

The NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports are off to a flying start and ready for you to join them today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets at Boston Celtics Wednesday, 12\/8\/10, 7:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Denver is hoping the second attempt to gain head coach George Karl\u2019s 1000th career win will be more successful on its second try than the first, dropping a 100-98 contest in Charlotte last night.\u00a0 \u201cIt would have been something I\u2019d have remembered if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[4076,120,49,526,3686,3636,197,3693],"class_list":["post-11338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-atlantic-division","tag-boston-celtics","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-doc-rivers","tag-george-karl","tag-rajon-rondo","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338","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=11338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11339,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338\/revisions\/11339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}