NBA Betting Picks: Indiana Pacers at Denver Nuggets

Added on Jan 23, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Sportsbooks are offering only one NBA betting opportunity for Sunday, a non conference matchup between the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers. The Pacers are in second place in the Central Division which sounds good until you notice that only the first place Chicago Bulls have a winning record. The Pacers are 12 games behind the leader at 16-24. Denver is in third place in the Northwest Division trying to hold off the plucky Portland Trailblazers who have pulled to within a 1/2 game of the Nuggets by virtue of a 5 game winning streak despite a rash of injuries.

Indiana Pacers at Denver Nuggets
January 23, 2011 5:35 PM Pacific

Not much to choose from in this matchup. The Pacers are 6-14 SU on the road though they’re a respectable 9-10-1 ATS. They’re only 8-11 ATS against teams with winning records and just 8-9 ATS in non-conference action. Denver, however, is an even worse pointspread investment and particularly as a favorite. Nuggets are 9-15 ATS as a favorite, 6-8 ATS in non-conference games and 8-11 ATS against opponents with losing records. They’re 9-9-1 ATS in their last 19 games but the chemistry of the team isn’t going to get any better after the abortive attempt to trade Carmelo Anthony to the New Jersey Nets.

The Pacers routed the Nuggets at home on November 9, winning 144-113 as +1 home underdogs. If Denver was a less mentally dysfunctional team we might be interested in a ‘revenge’ scenario, but the Nuggets are just 10-8 SU/8-9 ATS in revenge spots this year so it sure doesn’t appear like that’s much of a motivation for this team. Pacers ran out of gas at Portland late in the game on Saturday, but in a matchup between teams we’d rather go against we’ll take Indiana and continue to fade the head case Nuggets. We’re getting a good price–5 Dimes Sportsbook currently has the Nuggets installed as a -8′ point home favorite.

Bet Indiana Pacers +8′ over Denver Nuggets