{"id":13640,"date":"2011-02-24T09:57:47","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T14:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13640"},"modified":"2011-02-24T09:57:47","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T14:57:47","slug":"boston-celtics-vs-denver-nuggets-pro-basketball-picks-and-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/boston-celtics-vs-denver-nuggets-pro-basketball-picks-and-predictions-13640\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics vs Denver Nuggets Pro Basketball Picks and Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics at Denver Nuggets
\nThursday, 2\/24\/11, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 204
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 203.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Boston Celtics get their first look at the new Denver Nuggets Thursday night inside the Pepsi Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boston is focused on picking up its fourth win in five meeting against Denver and is coming off a 115-93 road win over Golden State on Tuesday night.\u00a0 The Celtics went into the halftime break tied, but outscored the Warriors by 22 over the final two quarters to tally a third consecutive win.\u00a0 \u201cYou lose the first game after the All-Star break, you kind of lose your momentum and they\u2019re you\u2019re battling uphill,\u201d said forward Paul Pierce.\u00a0 \u201cSo it\u2019s good to get that first one and keep that momentum.\u201d\u00a0 The team is 16-9 overall on the road this season, including a 6-2 mark against Western Conference opponents.\u00a0 Boston is 5-15 ATS after a win by 10 or more points this season and currently a road favorite on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Celtics split the season series 1-1 against the Nuggets last year and guard Ray Allen led the club in scoring 20.5 points per game, while forward Kevin Garnett pitched in with 17.5 points and 7.5 rebounds.\u00a0 Boston may have its focus elsewhere from an organizational standpoint on Thursday, as many NBA experts are expecting the club to conduct a trade and obtain a backup small forward.\u00a0 The team is still uncertain about the status of Marquis Daniels, who suffered a bruised spinal cord on February 6.<\/p>\n

Denver had little trouble in dispatching Memphis in its first game after the All-Star break and trading star Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks in a three-team deal.\u00a0 The Nuggets had six of their eight active players score in double figures in the 120-107 win.\u00a0 \u201cOur guys, when their backs are confronted with a difficult situation, they usually play at a high level,\u201d said coach George Karl.\u00a0 \u201cWe always react to tough situations in a positive way.\u201d\u00a0 The team will be focused on reaching the century mark offensively tonight, but will be facing one of the best defenses in the league.\u00a0 Denver is 3-13 when scoring less than 100 points in a game.\u00a0 The club is 1-7 ATS against Atlantic division foes this season.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets are a solid 23-7 overall at home this season and come into tonight\u2019s big-time match-up with an 8-1 record when hosting Eastern Conference teams.\u00a0 Denver has won five of its last six games against Boston in the Mile High City, but the one loss came on February 23, 2009 at the Pepsi Center by 38 points.\u00a0 That particular loss tied the largest margin of defeat every for the Nuggets at the hands of the Celtics.\u00a0 Offensively, the team leads the NBA in scoring at 107.8 points per game, but the defensive end must improve.\u00a0 The Grizzlies became the fourth Denver opponent in the last six games to shoot at least 50 percent from the field.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Celtics due to their 11-4 ATS mark as a road favorite of 0.5 to 4.5 points, while the Nuggets are 2-5 ATS as an underdog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics at Denver Nuggets Thursday, 2\/24\/11, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 204 Current Total:\u00a0 203.5 Boston is focused on picking up its fourth win in five meeting against Denver and is coming off a 115-93 road win over Golden State on Tuesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,526,3637,1555],"class_list":["post-13640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-pepsi-center","tag-ray-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13640","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=13640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13642,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13640\/revisions\/13642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}