It's a battle of giants tonight in Denver as the leading teams from both conferences clash at Ball Arena. Will Giannis and co. sweep the regular season series, or will Nikola Jokic and his Nuggets respond with a win of their own? Tip-off is at 9 pm on NBA TV, and I've prepared a Same Game Parlay.
Check our NBA Predictions page for picks on the side and total for all 5 Saturday games, but now let's dive into my SGP bet!
Milwaukee Bucks 1 – 10 Win Margin (+220)
You don't get to back the Bucks often as underdogs, but tonight's game in Denver is exactly that with the Nuggets being favorites by 2.5 points. Ball Arena has been a tough place to play at for almost everyone, Nikola Jokic and co. are 30-6 SU this season which is only second to the Grizzlies who are 32-5 SU. That won't discourage Giannis and his Bucks though, in fact I see it as a huge motivating factor for the Greek Freak to do well here. Fatigue shouldn't be an issue for Milwaukee, they are playing on a 2nd night of a back-to-back, however in last night's win over Utah none of the starters logged more than 29 minutes. This team is a dominant 12-1 SU in their last 13 on the road, they've covered the spread in 4 of their last 6 and are a staggering 14-1 SU in their last 15 vs Western Conference opponents. Denver did hit a bit of a rough patch lately, covering the spread just 3 times in their last 9 games while winning just 4 of them. The first meeting of t he season went Milwaukee's way and with a win tonight the Bucks send out a clear message that they're going for it all this year.
Michael Porter Jr. to Score 20+ Points (+140)
Other than Jokic, I'd argue Porter Jr. has been the 2nd most consistent Nuggets player this season. He's been on a solid stretch over his last 10 appearances clearing this line 6 times, including in his last 2 games vs Brooklyn and Washington. He's one of the more efficient players at his position, connecting on 53.2% of his shots from the field and 47.1% from three on 3.2 makes per game. With the likes of Jae Crowder, Meyers Leonard and Khris Middleton all missing through injuries, there could be a lack of wing defenders here for the Bucks. Milwaukee does like to speed up the pace quite a bit, we just saw their game at Utah produce 260 points. Porter Jr. thrives in those type of games, instead of having to run around trying to guard Middleton his main assignment tonight will be Bobby Portis which should leave him enough energy to score 20 points here.