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The Friday night NBA slate will bring us an east vs. west battle in the Rocky Mountains as the struggling Atlanta Hawks wrap up a weeklong west coast road trip to face the Denver Nuggets.
Denver (7-4) is on a two-game winning streak and will have Nikola Jokic back in the lineup for tonight’s tip. The reigning MVP served a one-game suspension this week for shoulder-checking Heat forward Markieff Morris on Monday. He missed the Nuggets’ 101-98 victory over the Pacers on Wednesday, one in which Will Barton went off for 30 points and six rebounds.
Atlanta (4-8) has had a rough go of things for the last nine days and are carrying a five-game losing streak into tonight’s matchup. The Hawks were victims of a 50-point performance by Steph Curry on Monday before falling 110-98 at Utah the following night.
Denver enters the game as a four-point favorite per DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total set at 214.5.
Hawks vs. Nuggets, 9:00 p.m. ET
Pick ATS: Nuggets -4.5
The Nuggets have the reigning MVP back on the court after he served his one-game suspension and that doesn’t spell out good news for the Hawks, even if they’ve had two days of rest. Atlanta is second to last in the league in covering the spread at 3-9, so that favors Denver here.
Over/Under: Under 214.5
The Nuggets are the most under-friendly team in the league with the under cashing in nine of their 11 games this season. Facing a struggling Hawks team at home, Denver should be able to control the pace of this one throughout and keep Atlanta under 100 points.
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