Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder Betting Preview

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— Wednesday, December 22nd Denver Nuggets @ Oklahoma City Thunder

The Denver Nuggets are set to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. Unfortunately for the Nuggets, their game against the Brooklyn Nets has been postponed.

However, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be a good placeholder for them to improve their conference standing. The great news for Denver is they’ll likely get a few players back.

On the Thunder side of the ball, they’re relatively healthy. Just two players are currently on the injury list, and one of them could be in the lineup on Wednesday. The Thunder have also won their last two games, beating the Clippers and Grizzlies.

As they try to claw their way up the conference, could we see an upset on our hands? Or will the favorite win and cover this one.

Denver Nuggets: Denver is a huge favorite in this one

The Denver Nuggets are a great basketball team, but they’ll be missing a few pieces. Luckily for them, Nikola Jokic is back in the lineup, giving them back their leading scorer. In their game against the Atlanta Hawks, the Nuggets hit 17 three-pointers.

Hopefully, they can be just as efficient from beyond the arc on Wednesday. That’s much easier said than done, however.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Thunder will have a hard time getting through the lane. With Nikola Jokic in the paint, the Thunder will be forced to shoot from outside.

This greatly benefits the Denver Nuggets as the Thunder are just 31.07% from the three (29th in the NBA). By forcing the Thunder to shoot from outside, the Nuggets can stop their offense easily.

Oklahoma City Thunder: Keys to victory against the Nuggets

Since the Thunder doesn’t have a great shooting team, they’ll need to be smarter about their approach. Considering Nikola Jokic is back in the lineup, they’ll need to draw him out.

They can do this by having their center Jeremiah Robinson-Earl come to the top of the paint. This will force Jokic to move up and create lanes for the Thunder’s playmakers.

Still, the shooting in this game is going to be vital. The Nuggets have the fifth-best field-goal percentage in the NBA and the 16th best 3PT shooting. For the Thunder to win this game, they’ll have to limit the good looks the Nuggets get inside.

They can’t afford to double-team Jokic, who leads the team in assists per game as well. Frankly, this will be a tough one for the Thunder.

Our pick for the Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder

Although the Nuggets are the heavy favorite here, we like the Oklahoma City Thunder. The outline for them to win this game is laid out perfectly. They’ll need to shut down Jokic and find a way to score from outside.

They can lean on their defense here and capitalize on scoring opportunities. This is going to be a close game, which is why we’ll take the Thunder +6.5 and the under. The total has gone under in four of the Thunder’s last five games.

DunkelIndex Free Pick: Oklahoma City Thunder +6.5, UNDER

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