*NBA(1u): Nuggets -2.5(-110) vs Hornets–8:10 PM CT
This is an absolutely horrible spot for the Hornets, who have been on the road since December 13th and will conclude the 6th and final game of their road trip tonight. They’ve spent nearly the past week exclusively on the west coast and won’t play until December 27th after tonight’s game. These players are human too, and in a game like basketball, it absolutely matters. Denver isn’t in great current form(14 point loss to OKC last night), but this is a team that has recently welcomed back a plethora of guys off of the injury report. The Nuggets will start to look a lot more like last year’s team in the coming weeks. As for the matchup in this game, Nikola Jokic should be poised to completely take over with Mason Plumlee as his counterpart on the Hornets side. This line is short.
*NBA(1u): Grizzlies +6(-110) @ Warriors–9:10 PM CT
I don’t typically want to be looking for reasons to bet against a team like the Warriors, but this line indicates what I already thought when handicapping this game. The Warriors travel to Phoenix on Christmas Night to take on a red-hot Suns team, making this somewhat of a “look ahead” spot. Additionally, the Warriors will be without Andrew Wiggins, Damion Lee, Jordan Poole, and Andre Iguodala tonight. Steph Curry being in obviously keeps Golden State as pretty sizable favorites, but I don’t think this line is adjusting enough for how much those 4 counterparts mean to this Golden State team. Ja Morant has returned for the Grizzlies and already got a game to get back into the groove of things; while he might need a few more games to return to peak form, expect a better performance than we saw against OKC the other night. Even so, the Grizzlies proved they could win and win a lot without Morant, which should take some pressure off the rising star. Given the look ahead spot and depth issues to the pieces around Steph Curry, I’ll be on the Memphis side tonight.
