Game Time: 8:30 PM ET, Thursday, December 9th, 2021 

Venue:  AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread:  NL

BetMGM:  Spread:  NL

VegasInsider:  Spread:  NL

Opening Line: Spread: Nuggets -7.5; O/U 221 

Nuggets: 11-12, 8th place Western Conference

Spurs: 8-15, 12th place Western Conference

The Denver Nuggets are a cautionary tale for Owners, GMs, and fans.  You can do everything right.  You can find an MVP, in the second round of the draft, to play Center for your team like Nikola Jokic. You can find a fantastic scoring guard like Jamal Murray who grows from 9.9 points per game in his rookie season to 21 points a game by his fifth year. You can watch as a gem in the draft drops to you because of a college injury like Michael Porter Jr and once you get him upright and playing he can give you 19 points on the offense and 7.3 rebounds on defense in his second year in the NBA.  You can have a great shooting bench. You can knock off opponents from the season-opener all throughout the regular season. You can make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals…. But you better win!...  because that was last season.  This season Jamal Murray is out indefinitely with a knee injury and Michael Porter Jr is out indefinitely with a reoccurrence of the back problem that made him fall to you in the draft.  Aaron Gordon is simply 10% below the player they traded for when he played for the Orlando Magic… This season you have a losing record and you missed your chance to win a title.  The cautionary tale is supposed to teach you to go all in all the time… and assume you could stink next season.

The San Antonio Spurs won those titles!!  They won lots of them!!  Not lately though.  The party has come to an end in San Antonio.  The Spurs have been stuck outside of the playoff discussion since Kawhi Leonard was moved to Toronto way back in 2018.  They lost their two previous games to the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns and are now 7 games below .500. The roster is not that good and legendary coach Gregg Popovich is still resisting the idea of having them jack 3-pointers from behind the arc all game.  He wants the Spurs to take good shots and make clean passes while playing solid, team defense…. In an NBA game?.. Crazy stuff.  The simple truth is if the Spurs are going to lose to the Knicks by double-figures while circling the drain of the standings…4 seasons after Kahwi left and 5 years after Tim Duncan retired… It’s time to go full rebuild mode and stop the nonsense.

Jim Feist has isolated one game in the NBA Western Conference tonight where one team holds the edge and key to cover this matchup. Join a Vegas betting veteran with nearly five decades of winning experience and WIN with JIM tonight on his NBA Western Conference Game of the Week. Get Jim Feist’s picks right now at the Shop Picks page, where you can find all of the Best Bets from our champion sports handicappers. NCAAF, NFL, MLB… get positive value from all your bets! Expert picks!  Fun fact… winning a wager is much better than making a wager!

The Nuggets are 11-12 on the season, but 9-14 ATS.  They have logged 11 Overs and 12 Unders.  They are very vulnerable on the road where they are 4-8.

The Spurs are 8-15 on the season, but 13-10 ATS.  They have notched 10 Overs, 11 Unders, and 2 Push.  They are vulnerable everywhere… they are 4-7 in home games.  They are also a dangerous bet… Their record tends to give them a wider point spread than a Greg Popovich team is going to be willing to lose by.  They don’t have enough talent, but they still play with full effort through the final whistle.

The Nuggets are 26th in PTS per game with 103.7, 29th in rebounds with 42.8 points per game, and 9th in AST/TO ratio.  The only thing keeping them from sinking like a stone in the standings is the wonderful FG% of 46.1 for a 10th place ranking (thank you Jokic).  They also are solid on defense and rank 3rd by only allowing 104.1 ppg (thank you jokic).

 

Our prediction for Thursday, December 9th is….  Nuggets 109 - Spurs 99

Yes, the Nuggets are beat up and a handful of key guys that will miss the game.  However, The Spurs don’t have anyone on the roster that can play Jokic in the paint.  The Nuggets will drop it low and help will have to come… then Nuggets shooters will get the pass back for easy looks all night…. The same way that Denver didn’t have a guard that could hang with Luka when Den played Dal.

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The Spurs are 1-0 ATS versus Denver at San Antonio over the last 3 seasons.

The Spurs are 3-3 ATS versus Denver over the last 3 seasons.

Denver is 5-1 SU over San Antonio the last three seasons.

4 of 6 games in this series have gone OVER the total in the last 3 seasons.

Denver: PF Michael Porter JR (back) Out ** Jamal Murray (knee) Out ** C Bol Bol (ill) probable ** SG Will Barton (ill) Probable

Spurs: SG Devin Vassell (thigh) Doubtful ** SF Keldon Johnson (ankle) Doubtful ** Zach Collins (ankle) Out

Denver: F Jeff Green, F Aaron Gordon, C Nikola Jokic, G Will Barton, G Monte Morris

Spurs: F Keldon Johnson, F Doug McDermott, C Jakoc Poeltl, G Derrick White, G Dejounte Murray

Denver

Points: Nikola Jokic 25.6

Assists: Nikola Jokic 6.8

Rebounds: Nikola Jokic 13.5

Steals: Davon Reed 1.5

Blocks: Aaron Gordon 0.7

Spurs

Points: Dejounte Murray 18.8

Assists: Dejounte Murray 8.4

Rebounds: Jakob Poeltl 9.3

Steals: Dejounte Murray 2.0

Blocks: Jakob Poeltl 1.6