Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Will Barton remain out Monday vs. Thunder

Denver Nuggets guard group of Jamal Murray, Gary Harris and Will Barton will all remain sidelined for Monday’s game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, per the NBA 5:20 injury report released on Sunday evening.

All three were sidelined for an ugly blowout loss to the Miami Heat in the Nuggets’ first contest of the regular-season restart in the bubble in Orlando. As a result, Denver is 2.0 games back of the Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 2 seed in the West. The Nuggets are also just a game up on the Utah Jazz in the 3-seed. So desperation may need to sink in for Denver.

Fantasy basketball and betting impact

As a result of the injuries, the Nuggets have been leaning heavily on Nikola Jokic. The All-Star center slimmed down and posted 19 points, 6 assists and 7 rebounds against the Heat. It wasn’t his greatest effort, but Jokic doesn’t have much help out there. The lack of offense will be tough, so it’s hard to trust the Nuggets in DFS contests. There is still value in targeting guys like Michael Porter Jr. and Torrey Craig, as well as MOnte Morris and Troy Daniels. The issue is how much will their prices go up?

From a betting angle, this game screams UNDER depending on what the number is. My guess is it opens at a certain point and gets bet way down initially. Getting in early may be your best bet. The Thunder can score, but can they put up 125 points like the Heat? I don’t know. OKC did have 110 on the Jazz in the opener win. The spread could also swing heavily in favor of the Thunder. Judging by how the Nuggets looked in Game 1, it’s hard to trust them.

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