Who's Playing
Boston Celtics @ Denver Nuggets
Current Records: Boston 26-10, Denver 20-14
How To Watch
- When: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 10 p.m. ET
- Where: Ball Arena -- Denver, Colorado
- TV: TNT
- Follow: CBS Sports App
- Ticket Cost: $43.99
What to Know
The Nuggets will be in front of their home fans on Tuesday, but a look at the spread shows they might need that home-court advantage. They will host the Boston Celtics at 10:00 p.m. ET at Ball Arena. The Nuggets are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 120.8 points per game this season.
On Saturday, the Nuggets needed a bit of extra time to put away the Spurs. They came out on top against San Antonio by a score of 122-111. Denver was down 69-57 with 9:09 left in the third quarter but they still came back for the handy 11-point victory.
Nikola Jokic was his usual excellent self, almost dropping a triple-double on 46 points, nine rebounds, and ten assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Michael Porter Jr., who dropped a double-double on 28 points and ten rebounds.
The Nuggets were working as a unit and finished the game with 32 assists (they're ranked first in assists per game overall). That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now racked up at least 29 assists in six consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, the Celtics unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Sunday. They took a 105-92 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Thunder. The loss hurts even more since Boston was up 65-52 with 1:15 left in the second.
Denver has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 20-14 record this season. As for Boston, their defeat dropped their record down to 26-10.
While only the Nuggets took care of their fans the last time they played, neither team managed to cover. Looking forward, the Celtics are the favorite in this one, as the experts expect to see them win by 5.5 points. This contest will be their 17th straight as the favorites (so far over this stretch they are 7-9 against the spread).
This contest is shaping up to be a blowout: The Nuggets just can't miss this season, having drained 49.8% of their field goals per game (they're ranked second in field goal percentage overall). It's a different story for the Celtics, though, as they've only made 46% of theirs this season. Given the Nuggets' sizable advantage in that area, the Celtics will need to find a way to close that gap.
Odds
Boston is a solid 5.5-point favorite against Denver, according to the latest NBA odds.
The line has drifted a bit towards the Celtics, as the game opened with the Celtics as a 4-point favorite.
The over/under is 235.5 points.
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Series History
Boston has won 6 out of their last 10 games against Denver.
- Mar 07, 2024 - Denver 115 vs. Boston 109
- Jan 19, 2024 - Denver 102 vs. Boston 100
- Jan 01, 2023 - Denver 123 vs. Boston 111
- Nov 11, 2022 - Boston 131 vs. Denver 112
- Mar 20, 2022 - Boston 124 vs. Denver 104
- Feb 11, 2022 - Boston 108 vs. Denver 102
- Apr 11, 2021 - Boston 105 vs. Denver 87
- Feb 16, 2021 - Boston 112 vs. Denver 99
- Dec 06, 2019 - Boston 108 vs. Denver 95
- Nov 22, 2019 - Denver 96 vs. Boston 92
