Halloween is upon us, bringing a spooky slate of eight games to choose from throughout the night. The Joker and his Denver Nuggets take on the Portland Trail Blazers at 10 p.m. EST as a contending team meets a young squad on the come-up… not only in a regular-season matchup, but the first game of each side’s NBA Cup quest. The Nuggets are favored on DraftKings Sportsbook, though not by as many points as one may assume. This shapes up as a competitive affair with plenty of stars on display, so settle in for this fright-night affair.
Here’s a Nuggets vs. Trail Blazers prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Friday’s matchup.
Nuggets vs. Trail Blazers prediction, preview
Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets are off to a 3-1 start to their season with a re-tooled roster that might just be the best of Nikola Jokic’s career. Offseason additions Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas are all slotted into the rotation to provide additional firepower around Denver’s star duo of Jokic and Jamal Murray. Each have provided varying degrees of production, but once Johnson gets comfortable with his new team, the sky’s the limit for this roster. Jokic averages his typical triple-double with 20.3 points, 11.2 assists and 14.5 rebounds, while Murray’s pitching in 27.0 points with 6.0 dimes a night. A trend to watch is the excellent start from Aaron Gordon, whose 21.3 PPG would set a career-high if this pace continues.
Overall, Denver ranks second in PPG (128.3) with the NBA’s most efficient shooting percentage from the field (52.7%). At first in assists, sixth in turnovers and 10th in rebounding as well, the Nuggets are playing well-rounded ball while also holding opponents to the seventh-fewest PPG (112.5). This team looks very, very scary… and Jokic hasn’t even exploded in the scoring column net.
Portland Trail Blazers
The Trail Blazers are 3-2 themselves and showing some more signs of growth after ending last season on a positive note. Big moves were scarce over the offseason with a swap of Anfernee Simons for Jrue Holiday headlining the roster changes, but locking down Toumani Camara and Shaedon Sharpe on long-term contracts just before the campaign began felt like a smart piece of business for a team on the rise. Deni Avdija leads the team in scoring with 22.6 points while pithing in 6.4 boards and 4.2 assists as his career arc continues an upward trajectory. Veterans Jerami Grant and Holiday are second and third in the scoring column with 21.6 and 19.6 PPG with the former coming off the bench and the latter dishing out a team-high 7.8 assists a night. Camara’s defensive prowess provides a lockdown presence, and Donovan Clingan averages nearly a double-double with 10.4 points and 9.0 boards as well.
Portland sits seventh in scoring (123.6) and 10th in assists, but 21st in rebounding and 25th in turnovers. However, the Trail Blazers are forcing extra possessions with an NBA-best 12.2 steals. The defense comes in at 17th with 118.6 PPG allowed to opponents, but they do create plenty of turnovers with 23.0, 3.6 more than the next-closest unit.
Nuggets vs. Trail Blazers pick, best bet
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Nuggets enter as -4.5 favorites with -218 odds to win on the Moneyline. The Trail Blazers come in at +180 underdogs to win outright with a game total of 238.5 points.
The sample size remains very small, but Denver has all the makings of an early season powerhouse. With a top-three player in the league complemented by a star guard and a ton of high-end role players, the Nuggets look like a complete team that probably finds itself deep in the playoffs once more. The Western Conference is super stacked, so the road for Portland to make the postseason does appear difficult. However, the Trail Blazers have plenty of young talent with upside along with dependable veterans. They’re in position to at least make a run to the Play-In Tournament assuming everyone stays healthy. With expectations out of the way though, this individual matchup should be a very fun one.
The biggest question by far is the health of Murray, who’s questionable to play with a calf issue. The Trail Blazers have a shot to cover at +4.5 to begin with, but if he doesn’t suit up, the outlook gets even better for the home team. While an outright win may prove difficult to come by as Jokic matches up against Clingan in the post, Portland can certainly keep this game competitive and make things uncomfortable for their opponent. Even if the Nuggets win the rebounding battle, the Trail Blazers should make up for it by breaking up passing lanes and snatching up steals throughout the night.
