Pistons minus 7 hosting Nuggets
The Pistons don’t just need a win, but a blowout victory. I see them achieving that in this home matchup against the Nuggets.
Detroit is in full stop-the-pain mode having lost six in a row. This begs the question are the Pistons good enough to lay this amount of points? They were 12-8 before their losing streak, including being 8-2 SU, 6-3-1 ATS at Little Caesars Arena, their new home.
Now let’s examine their losing skid. Detroit didn’t play well in a 109-91 road loss to the Wizards, which began their losing skid.
The Pistons then had three more away contests. All were against respectable-to-good teams at tough road venues – Philadelphia, San Antonio and Milwaukee. The Pistons lost those three games by an average of four points per game. Then the Pistons opened their homestand drawing the Warriors and Celtics, two of the three best teams in the NBA. The Pistons trailed the Celtics by four points with under three minutes remaining before losing, 91-81. That’s the third-fewest points the Celtics have scored this season.
The Pistons finally get a schedule break with this game and opponent. Denver is one of those good home/bad road teams.
The Nuggets are 4-10 SU, 3-11 ATS away from Pepsi Center. Denver has a high fatigue rating, too, playing its fifth road contest in nine days and coming off an overtime game against the Pacers on Sunday.
Denver is vulnerable to Andre Drummond, the NBA rebounding leader, missing their two best players, big men Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap. Both are out with injuries. This puts a lot of pressure on the Nuggets guards, who are erratic. Starting guard Jamal Murray is dealing with a calf injury, too.
Avery Bradley has been in shooting slump, but he’s one of the better defensive guards in the NBA. So I don’t see the Nuggets making up for their key frontcourt injuries by getting exceptional scoring from their guards.