NBA: Denver Nuggets vs Houston Rockets Betting Preview

This Friday night we have a match up between two elite Western Conference teams as 2nd seeded Denver Nuggets host the Houston Rockets!

Denver Nuggets

Denver Nuggets have bounced back pretty well since getting obliterated by the Warriors couple weeks ago winning 6 of their last 7 games and with a win tonight they could tie the Warriors record again for the 1st seed. Denver Nuggets have the tied best home record at 22-4 and have won 16 of their last 17 here despite never really being at full health this whole season. Looking at the injury report for tonight, Denver will once again miss a few key players as Jamal Murray is out again, Isaiah Thomas and Michael Porter continue to be out while Gary Harris is questionable but recent play by Monte Morris and Malik Beasley should replace Murray’s and Harris’ if needed pretty well.

Injury Report:

Gary Harris – Questionable

Jamal Murray – OUT

Michael Porter JR – OUT

Isaiah Thomas – OUT

Houston Rockets

Houston have been up and down lately, obviously injuries have been causing them to drop games with all Capela, Gordon, CP3 missing a number of games. Paul and Gordon have returned but Houston are coming off a disastrous loss to depleted Pelicans who had no AD Randle Mirotic and Moore at Home and will be looking at a bounce back. James Harden play has kept Houston afloat with his incredible over 40 ppg January and a 23 straight games of 30+ points and is expected to go off again tonight considering that Houston are without Capela and Chris Paul might be out again as he’s questionable to play with a sore back. Houston have had great success against Denver this season leading season series 2-0 so they may have that edge on them but without Capela and possibly CP3 this may not go quite well for them tonight.

Injury Report:

Clint Capela – OUT

Nene – OUT

Chris Paul – Questionable

Betting Stats

Totals

Nuggets are in the top 10 in covering total point overs at Home at 57.7% (15-11). They have especially been covering the Overs at high rate in recent weeks covering 6 straight point overs at Home entering this game. The total tonight is 225.5 and the only other time that they had this pre-game total was against the Clippers where the 225.5 total ended with an under as Denver won 121-100.

Rockets are in the bottom 5 at covering total point overs on the Road this season which is ironic because they’re the best at it at Home which makes it a huge discrepancy. Rockets covered just 39.1% of their total point overs on the road this season (9-1-13). They’ve had a 225.5 point total once this season and that was against the Warriors which ended up resulting in an over as Houston won 135-134 after OT. The total was already covered in regulation anyway with the game ending 119-119 so OT didn’t affect that.

Handicaps

Nuggets are in the top 3 at covering Handicaps at Home at a very high 69.2% (18-8)! Denver are 5 point favourites tonight and the closest they’ve been to that was when they were 5.5 point favourites against the Clippers covering it comfortably with a 121-100 win. They were also 4.5 point favourites 3 times against Houston, Dallas and Portland only covering 1 of those 3 against Dallas.

Rockets have been awful at covering Handicaps on the road this season at an awful 34.8% (8-1-14). The closest they’ve been to being 5 point underdogs was against tonight’s opponents Denver the first time they met in Denver which Houston covered winning 99-109. In general Houston are 1-4 at covering Handicaps as Road underdogs this season.

Recent H2H in Denver

Rockets have dominated the Nuggets in general and in Denver winning 4 straight there.

Most recently as already mentioned, Houston beat Denver on the road this season 109-99 as underdogs covering a +4.5 handicap while the given total 214.5 pts resulted in an under as the total points scored was 208.

Match Start – 2nd February 2019 – 3am UK Time