Nuggets, Pelicans Both Seek Bounce-Back Efforts in New Orleans

The Denver Nuggets hope to rebound from a rare home loss Thursday on TNT when they visit the banged-up New Orleans Pelicans. The 0-4 Pelicans are coming off a bad home loss of their own and could be without forward Derrick Favors in this one.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

Books opened the Nuggets as 4-point road favorites with a total of 226. Denver was 13.5-point chalk in its most recent visit to New Orleans in March. Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday is probable to play tonight, while Favors was listed as doubtful as of Thursday morning.

Denver News & Notes

The Nuggets suffered their first loss of the year Tuesday, falling 109-106 to the visiting Dallas Mavericks. Denver allowed 60 points in the Sportsbook half Tuesday and was outscored 26-18 in the final frame by the Mavs, who had nine different players reach double digits in points.

It was the second game in as many nights for Denver, but the Nuggets were 12-1 in that situation last season. “Too many layups, too many broken assignments,” Paul Millsap told reporters. “We’ll figure it out.”

It seems safe to expect a better defensive effort from Denver against the Pelicans. The last 32 times that the Nuggets allowed an opponent to eclipse the century mark, the UNDER is 23-9 in their following game.

New Orleans News & Notes

Remember that feel-good vibe in the Big Easy this summer when the Pelicans won the draft lottery and selected Zion Williamson first overall? Well, that’s long gone now. With Williamson on the sideline (preseason knee injury), New Orleans has stumbled to an 0-4 start out of the gate.

The first three losses were forgivable — an OT loss at Toronto and hard-fought defeats against the Mavs and Rockets — but not the latest one. New Orleans was dominated from the Sportsbook tip by the Golden State Warriors on Monday, getting outrebounded 61-41 and surrendering 30 second-chance points in a 134-123 loss to the Dubs that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.

The Pelicans were also without Holiday and Favors on Monday, but Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry wasn’t buying that as an excuse. “We were never in the game,” said Gentry. “That’s disturbing.”

So are New Orleans’ defensive numbers, with the Pelicans allowing an average of 128.3 points per game and 45.9 percent shooting from the field.

Betting Pick: Nuggets -4

The Pelicans have not rebounded well from poor performances recently under Gentry, going 0-7 ATS in their last seven games following a double-digit loss. With Denver motivated to bounce back from a bad loss as well, I’ll be looking to lay the points with the Nuggets.