The Tim Duncan era is over in San Antonio, yet the Spurs are still dominating the opposition under head coach Gregg Popovich. The San Antonio Spurs will journey to Colorado to take on the Denver Nuggets on Thursday in their first road game since calling to Atlanta on New Year’s Day. Despite the loss to the Hawks, the Spurs have proven to be a strong road team so far this season while the Nuggets are under-.500 at home.
This war on the floor will go down Thursday, January 5, 2017, at 9 p.m. ET at the Pepsi Center. The game will be televised live on Fox Sports Southwest. We'll have NBA odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NBA Thursday schedule.
Odds Analysis
The Nuggets are better ATS than they are SU, but heading into Monday night, Denver had dropped five straight ATS. The Nuggets are also better at covering the spread on the road than they are at home.
Flipping the other side of the court, the Spurs have covered the spread in six straight home games and are 9-2 ATS overall in their last 11 games. They have failed to cover two of their last three games when favored on the road. They should be in that position again on Thursday night.
Injury Report
After missing back-to-back games with a stomach injury, Kawhi Leonard was back on the court on Sunday, but managed just 13-points albeit in 28 minutes of action.
Leonard should be able to give them more on Thursday assuming all goes well in Tuesday’s game against Toronto. Leonard has taken the reigns of this team—though they’ve shown they can win without him as they won both games he missed last week both SU and ATS. It was a collective effort to fill the hole left by Leonard for those couple games, though LaMarcus Aldridge has scored 27 or more in three of his last four games.
With Leonard back in the fold, there are no other current injury issues for the Spurs who will be operating at full strength in the thin air up in Colorado. That’s important as the extra depth could play a bigger role when playing 5,000 feet about sea level.
On the other side, the Nuggets do have a few injuries with Kenneth Faried dealing with a back injury, Jameer Nelson suffering from a rib injury and Darrell Arthur still nursing a knee injury.
Letdown Spot
The Spurs take on the Raptors on Tuesday before heading to the Mile High City to take on the lowly Nuggets.
Given the records of these two teams, this should be an easy win for San Antonio, but we saw Denver play the Warriors strong in Oakland for the first half on Monday, keeping the game within four at the break despite a 15.5-point spread.
This isn’t a situation where the Nuggets could be reasonably expected to get the upset, but they may have a shot ATS given this will be at their arena and San Antonio still figures to be sizeable favorites given the lack of defense for Denver and the Spurs’ balanced attack on both sides of the ball. You can also look for San Antonio to exploit the Nuggets’ weakness at the line.
Interestingly, the Nuggets are also a possible letdown team, not because they’ll over look San Antonio, but because this is a Denver team that played the Warriors tough on Monday and have a game on Tuesday before their Thursday night meeting with the Spurs.
Free NBA ATS Picks
The Spurs are a stacked team with elite talent at every position and a head coach that will have his team playing hard even against a seemingly lesser opponent.
San Antonio easily wins this matchup on the strength inside. Denver cannot come close to competing with the likes of Leonard, Aldridge and Pau Gasol. Look for the trio to shoot well inside against a Denver defense allowing the opposition to shoot 46.5-percent from the floor and score 109.7 PPG. In addition, the three should help San Antonio dominant the boards, too.
The Spurs are a top three defense and ranks third in field goal percentage and in percentage from behind the arc. They’re also the best from the free throw line. All in all, this is just a fundamentally solid team with better personnel than Denver.
Take the Spurs to beat the home team by double-digits.
NBA Odds: Spurs 106, Nuggets 95
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