Chicago Bulls vs. Denver Nuggets NBA Pick

NBA Betting Trends

NBA – February 7th

The second half of the NBA on TNT doubleheader is a good one for NBA betting fans to dive right into. The Denver Nuggets and the Chicago Bulls are set to do battle at the Pepsi Center in a battle of two of the most underappreciated teams in the league.

Chicago is finding a way to keep its head above water right now in spite of the fact that the team has had a ton of injuries to deal with, not the least of which is the one that has kept G Derrick Rose out for the whole season to this point. C Joakim Noah and G Kirk Hinrich are the two most recent injury casualties for the team. Hinrich has already been ruled out for the rest of the week with an infection in his elbow, while Noah has a foot injury that has kept him sidelined for the start of this week. He hopes to be back in the fold for this one, but he is still listed as questionable as of Wednesday night. If Noah is out, that puts more of a rebounding burden on F Luol Deng and F Carlos Boozer. These two are great together, as they are combining for over 16 boards per night. They’re also the top two scorers on the team with 17.2 and 15.7 points per game respectively. G Nate Robinson has stepped into the starting lineup in place of Hinrich.

Denver is rolling and rolling in a big time way right now on the offensive side of the court. The team has won seven straight games, including the first five games of this six-game home stand that ends on Thursday. In this stretch, the team has put up at least 112 points in three straight games and has averaged dropping 113.1 points per game on vanquished foes. As a result, the Nuggets are the third ranked scoring offense in the league at 104.2 points per game. More importantly though, is the fact that they rebound the basketball well. That’s always key against the Bulls, and this is one of the few teams in the NBA that really can body with all of the bigs that Chicago puts on the court at one time. Keep a close eye on F Kenneth Faried and F Danilo Gallinari to do work on the glass in this one. They are both also amongst the six men that are averaging double digits in scoring per night for Denver as well.

Prediction:

The way that the Nuggets have been playing of late, we don’t fancy any team against them. Chicago might be able to slow Denver down just a bit, but it isn’t going to matter. The Nuggs will win the battle of the boards, especially if Noah is slowed or is out, and that will be the difference in a convincing victory to close this home stand. Denver 104 – Chicago 95