Orlando Magic vs. Denver Nuggets: NBA Free Pick

The Magic finally snapped a four game losing streak on Sunday night with a 94-85 win at the Staples Center over the Los Angeles Clippers. This will be Orlando’s seventh road game in its L/8 overall, and the team has been battling a slew of problems in this stretch, most notably, a flu bug that swept through the locker room. The flu is gone, but some injury woes are still lurking, as Ryan Anderson and Chris Duhon are both questionable for this one. The good news is that “Superman,” Dwight Howard, is back to his old dominating ways. He had 22 points and eight boards in the win over the Clip Joint on Sunday, marking his second best game on this road trip. Since he had the flu, Howard does have three double-doubles, including a 39 point, 15 board performance in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Perhaps the most interesting of the five men averaging in double digits in scoring for the Magic is Brandon Bass. Bass has really made the play of Marcin Gortat relatively irrelevant, as he has stepped in at the power forward position and excelled. Bass has six double digit scoring games in his L/7 overall, and he had a double-double with 13 points and 11 boards in the ‘W’ over LA.

In spite of the fact that the Nuggets have the fourth best three point shooting percentage against in the NBA, they are really playing some awful ‘D’ right now that is starting to finally show in the won/loss column. The team has allowed 111.0 points per game over its last eight, including getting 129 dropped on it by the New York Knicks on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. In fairness to the Nuggs, they also just played a horrifying stretch of four games on the East Coast in a span of just six days, and they will be very, very happy to be back at home starting on Tuesday. Carmelo Anthony came back from his knee injury on Sunday and shined brightly in the Big Apple, scoring 31 points and pulling down 13 boards. ‘Melo is now averaging 23.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, and he leads the team in both categories. The key man in this one though, is going to be Nene. The Brazilian is the second leading scorer on the team at 15.4 points per game, and he is going to be the one matched up with Howard in the post. If he can at least contain this battle, Denver has a tremendous chance to shine.

It’s an insult that the Nuggets are only one point favorites on the NBA betting lines in this one. They are clearly a superior team at home, and in spite of the fact that they are just 3-7-1 ATS here, they are also one of the toughest teams in the NBA to upset. Orlando is road weary at this point and is probably just looking forward to getting back to the Sunshine State. It will finish up this roadie with a stinker.