NBA: Phoenix Suns VS Denver Nuggets Pick and Predictions 01/11/2023

Game: 10:10 PM ET,  Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

Venue:  Ball Arena, Denver, Colorado

TV:  NBA League Pass

Suns: 20-21, 8th place Western Conference

Nuggets: 27-13, 1st place Western Conference

An NBA Western Conference matchup that would have had more intrigue had they played 3 weeks ago.  The short story on this one is that the Suns have been losing recently… while the Nuggets have been winning.  So much so that the Suns have dropped from 2nd place to 8th place in the West… while the Nuggets have risen from 4th place to first place in the West. Now it’s a long season, fortunes change… but when making these bets you will want to pay close attention to recent results and not the projected future results of either team.  The Phoenix Suns recent misfortunes are obvious; they are suffering a bad batch of injuries… SG Devin Booker who is simply their best scorer, probably their best player… is out until late January with a groin strain.  Added to that problem are injuries to PG Cam Payne and PF Cam Johnson… on the roster but not with the team is PF Jae Crowder who has been kept away as the team can work out a trade… that process has lasted all season so far. … It got worse.  PG Chris Paul will miss Tuesday night with hip injury and his availability for this game will be in question.  The Denver Nuggets recent winning boom is obvious as well… C Nikola Jokic is the best player on earth most nights… and he finally has a fully healthy complement of players around him like Jamal Murray and Michael Porter JR.  The Great Betting opportunity is found in how many points you are willing to spot Phoenix before the tip.  Denver will win…. But by how much?

The Phoenix Suns are on a 6 game losing streak and have only won 1 of their last 10 games.  The fact that they are still in 8th place in the West after a stretch like that is a testament to how good they are when they are all healthy.  In their last game they lost to the Cleveland cavaliers 112-98.  The Suns leading scorer was PG Duane Washington Jr…. WHO? Duane had 25 points and ended up being the leading scorer for the entire game… normally Duane is not in the game plan for Phoenix at all.  So that may be encouraging… Duane also did it in 25 minutes of play. SF Mikal Bridges had an uninspiring 15, 2, and 3.  C Deandre Ayton had 14 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1 block… and that is nice, but the team had been hoping to rely on Max Contract Deandre Ayton MORE in regular games, not just games when he is the only Sun’s star on the floor.  The Suns are definitely exploring trade scenarios for Ayton who will become available very soon. 

The Denver Nuggets are winners of 8 of their last 10 games… They also went 8-2 ATS during that stretch.  They pulled off a 122-109 win over the Los Angeles Lakers while the spread was -12.5 in their favor.  That was a big ½ point cover (as predicted by me, here in this column), but it was as close as they come.  In the win the Nuggets got 34 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists from PG Jamal Murray.  Jokic had the sort of triple double that blows your mind when you realize it cam out of the Center Position… 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 16 ASSISTS… with 1 block, 1 steal!  Jokic is the MVP… who cares that it will be his third in a row?  The rest of the roster contributed on both ends of the court… with a nice even attack and the Lakers, who were playing without LeBron,  never had a chance. 

BetMGM:  Point Spread:  (will update)

PointsBet: Point Spread: 

Fanduel: Point Spread: 

Suns: PF Torey Craig, SF Dario Saric, C Deandre Ayton, PG Landry Shamet, SG Mikal Bridges

Nuggets: PF Michael Porter Jr, SF Aaron Gordon, C Nikola Jokic, SG Kentavious Caldwell Pope, PG Jamal Murray

 

 

Asa Inc is 17-8 in NBA picks the last 7 days for a profit of $8,050!! You should be following a handicapper all season long! Get Asa Inc’s picks right now at the Shop Picks page, where you can find all of the Best Bets from our champion sports handicappers. BigAl.com can help you with all your bets from NCAAF, NFL, MLB, NHL… get positive value from all your bets! Remember: winning a bet is way more fun than making a bet!

PHO: 20-21, 20-21 ATS, 18-23 O/U, 6-14 in road games.

DEN: 27-13, 21-19 ATS, 20-20 O/U, 17-3 in home games

The Suns are 17th in scoring with 112.7 points per game, 19th in rebounds with 42.9 per game, 2nd in AST/TO ratio with 1.9 per game, and 12th in blocks with 5.0 per game.

The Nuggets are 5th in scoring with 116.8 points per game, 15th in rebounds with 43.5 per game, 3rd in AST/To ratio with 1.9, and 21st in blocks per game with 4.4 per game. 

Our prediction for Wednesday, January 11th is…. Nuggets 121 - Suns 108

The Nuggets will not struggle against the undermanned Suns… In fact they may even be more undermanned since Ayton and Shamet are on the training table and listed as Questionable.  So the question here is what number will Vegas assign?... What we can guarantee is that if the Nuggets are up by a dozen?... Jokic will sit and rest… Murray will sit and rest.  So the absolute limit to bet here is -12.5, just like the Lakers game… anything else would be irresponsible especially since the Nuggets will not take this seriously at all.  Though you should be on the lookout for an amazing Jokic statline in limited minutes of play. Bet on the Nuggets unless the spread is an unreasonable -13 or bigger.

Don't miss our champion handicappers' Free NBA Picks and Premium Selections every day here at Bigal.com. Just click on Shop Picks for our Suns/Nuggets Best Bets, or click on Shop Subscriptions to join for a week or a month. And if you enjoyed this  preview, be sure to bookmark Bigal.com for our daily Game Previews and Predictions.  Get help with all your college football picks, National Football league, NCAA brackets, or any prop bets on your season schedule. 

Phoenix is 5-0 ATS versus Denver at Denver the last 3 seasons.

7 of the 11 games between these teams went OVER the last 3 seasons.

Suns: SF Mikal Bridges.  Mikal has for several seasons been the secret weapon in Phoenix.  He is a do it all player who can, score, rebound, and defend… He won't lead the team in many if any categories.. But he does a lot of everything a player can do.  

Nuggets: PF Michael Porter JR.  Michael has been back in the healthy lineup for only a little while and the team has been winning at a great clip.  You should be watching to see if it is something he specifically is doing… or if it is coincidence that Jokic and Murray are playing better with him… because it is almost certain the Michael will eventually see that trainer’s table again at some point this season.

Suns:  Monty “all class” Williams

Nuggets: Michael “rough and rugged” Malone