{"id":12534,"date":"2011-01-16T17:56:51","date_gmt":"2011-01-16T22:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12534"},"modified":"2011-01-16T17:56:51","modified_gmt":"2011-01-16T22:56:51","slug":"nba-picks-ats-denver-nuggets-at-san-antonio-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-picks-ats-denver-nuggets-at-san-antonio-spurs-12534\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Picks ATS: Denver Nuggets at San Antonio Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets AT San Antonio Spurs
\nJanuary 16th 2011 at 9:00 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -7.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -7.5
\nOpening Total: 211.5
\nCurrent Total: 209
\nOpening Moneyline: SA -330 \/ Den +280
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 SA -340 \/ Den +270<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Carmelo is hoping he and the Nuggets can end a four game losing streak they have going against the Spurs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For a team that doesn’t know how much longer they will be together, the Denver Nuggets have found a way to continue to play inspired basketball, winning their last three games by an average of 30 points.\u00a0 Winning tonight might not prove to be as easy, as the Spurs have won 14 straight at home and continue to dominate on their home court as well or better than any team in the league.\u00a0 Moreover, San Antonio has won both their meetings against the 23-16 Nuggets this year, and their last four overall against them, making the prospect of extending the winning streak that much more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as we\u2019re concerned, rumors don\u2019t really affect the way you prepare against the Denver Nuggets,\u201d San Antonio\u2019s Richard Jefferson(notes) said. \u201cThey\u2019re a Carmelo-based team, and they have been since he\u2019s been there.\u201d<\/p>\n

For as much as the Spurs are supposed to be an aging and over the hill team, they haven’t looked like it.\u00a0 They’re playing a faster pace basketball game this year and are off to the best 40 game start in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Denver is 7-3 SU in their last 10 games and 7-16-2 ATS in their last 25 road games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 5 of their last 7 road games and they are 1-5 SU in their last 6 on the road.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 6 games against the Spurs and they are 1-4 SU in their last 5 against San Antonio.\u00a0 The total has also gone UNDER in 11 of their last 12 road games against San Antonio.\u00a0 Denver is 8-17 SU in the last 25 games in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 5 of the Spurs’ last 5 games and they are 5-0 SU in those games.\u00a0 The total has also gone UNDER in 5 of their last 5 at home and they are 5-0 SU in those 5 games.
\n
\nKey matchups:<\/p>\n

Carmelo Anthony vs. Richard Jefferson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carmelo Anthony seems determined to make the best of his last days in Denver.\u00a0 While he may have only scored 12 last game against the Cavs, it was a blowout and he only played 27 minutes.\u00a0 In the two games prior he scored 21 and 28 and is still averaging better than 23 points per game on the year.\u00a0 Richard Jefferson is a decent defender but if Carmelo comes out focused, he will destroy Jefferson on the block where he has a significant size and strength advantage.\u00a0 Melo sat out with an injury last time the two teams met and the Nuggets still only lost by 6, so a healthy Melo could propel them over the top tonight.<\/p>\n

Chauncey Billups vs. Tony Parker<\/strong><\/p>\n

Billups, like Melo, is looking at the prospect of being traded, but unlike Melo, he doesn’t want to be.\u00a0 Billups grew up in Denver and played at Colorado University and would like to finish his career as a Nugget.\u00a0 His numbers are down this year but mostly due to the emergence of Ty Lawson.\u00a0 Billups is only playing 32 minutes a game this year, down over 3 minutes from last year and his field goal percentage is down slightly too.\u00a0 Again, like Carmelo, he’ll have a size and strength advantage over his opponent in Parker, but Parker usually finds a way to defend bigger players using his guile and wit.\u00a0 Moreover, he’ll be able to utilize his speed on the offensive end and attempt to get into the paint to create for himself or for the Spurs’ interior players.<\/p>\n

Tonight represents a big opportunity for the Nuggets. They are seeking to prove themselves against a Spurs team that has dominated them in recent times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets AT San Antonio Spurs January 16th 2011 at 9:00 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -7.5 Current Line:\u00a0 San Antonio -7.5 Opening Total: 211.5 Current Total: 209 Opening Moneyline: SA -330 \/ Den +280 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 SA -340 \/ Den +270 For a team that doesn’t know how much longer they will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[49,526,141],"class_list":["post-12534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-san-antonio-spurs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12534","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12535,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12534\/revisions\/12535"}],"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=12534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}