24.10.2024 | 
Nikola Jokic and his Denver Nuggets tip-off the new NBA campaign with home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both teams are aiming to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals this season, but which team will prevail in the season opener for the two sides?
The Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder meet on 24.10.2024, in an all Western Conference match-up. The game will be played at the Ball Arena (Denver) with the home team Denver Nuggets being favored at 1.84 odds to pull off the win.
|
Denver Nuggets |
Thu, 24.10.2024, 22:00 |
Oklahoma City Thunder |
|
1 |
x |
2 |
|
1.84 |
13.00 |
2.14 |
Denver Nuggets vs Oklahoma City Thunder: Current situation
Going into the new season, a lot of analysts are questioning how far the Denver Nuggets can go, after not such a successful offseason by their standards. New contracts were handed out to Jama Murray and Aaron Gordon, so the core has remained intact. Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric were the most notable additions, but will it be enough to take the Nuggets back to the NBA Finals? This team lacks three-point shooting, plus they struggle when Nikola Jokic is on the bench. What should give the Nuggets fans optimism though, is the fact that they failed to win 63% of their games just once over the past 6 seasons.
Most oddsmakers have the Oklahoma City Thunder as the 2nd biggest favorite to win the NBA championship, behind the defending champions Boston Celtics. This team is on the rise and their offseason moves are a clear indicator that they’re aiming high this year. Alex Caruso was added for much needed perimeter defense, while Isaiah Hartenstein should help out Chet Holmgren in the rebounding department once he recovers from his injury. You won’t find many flaws to this team, they were in the top 5 in both offensive and defensive rating last season.
Denver Nuggets Stats & Form
The preseason wasn’t kind to the Denver Nuggets, they finished allowing the most points in the Western Conference at 121 per game. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers were worse than that at 123 in the entire NBA. As a result, Denver won just 1 of the 5 games they played in, against the Minnesota Timberwolves 132-126. Preseason results are not to be taken seriously in most cases though, we are expecting the Nuggets to be a lot better once the regular season tips-off.
Oklahoma City Thunder Stats & Form
Unlike the Nuggets, Oklahoma City took the preseason very seriously and finished with the 2nd best record in the Western Conference at 4 wins and just 1 loss in 5 games played. Their most impressive win came against the Denver Nuggets who they beat 124-94, behind 19 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Denver Nuggets vs Oklahoma City Thunder: Head to Head
The Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder are both in the Northwest Division, which means we get 4 head-to-head duels every season. The Thunder actually lead the all-time regular season series with 105 wins to 94 by the Nuggets. However, a good portion of those wins come from the days when the franchise was located in Seattle under the name Supersonics. Last season, Denver blew out Oklahoma City 128-95 in the 1st meeting of the season, but then the Thunder responded with 3 straight victories, two of which were decided by just 5 and 1 point respectively.
Denver Nuggets – Oklahoma City Thunder Odds
Betswap is offering a very generous 1.74 odds for a home victory in this game. Meanwhile, if you like the OKC Thunder to pull off the upset win, odds of 2.14 are available at Betswap. If you see the game going into overtime, odds for a draw are a massive 13.00 at Betswap.
Top 3 Betting Odds
| Denver Nuggets vs San Antonio Spurs Betting Tip | Odds |
| Denver Nuggets -1.5 Point Spread | 1.81 |
| Oklahoma City Thunder +1.5 Point Spread | 2.00 |
| Under 229.5 Total Points | 1.61 |
Betting tip and prediction: Denver Nuggets vs Oklahoma City Thunder (24.10.2024)
Playing at home is the only reason the Denver Nuggets are favored by the oddsmakers in this duel. Jamal Murray has not looked good in a while; his disastrous postseason performance was followed up by an ever worse showing at the Olympics in Paris for Team Canada. You have to score a lot of threes in today’s NBA to win games and the Nuggets simply aren’t equipped in that department. Denver finished 25th in three pointers made per game, averaging just 11.5 last season. It could be a long year for the Nuggets if they don’t make moves to fix that issue before the trade deadline. Meanwhile, the Thunder are hungry for success and this is the perfect game for them to send out a clear message that they’ve arrived. We saw them beat the Nuggets in 3 straight regular season games last year, this includes both of their visits to Ball Arena. We believe backing the OKC Thunder to cover the spread is a good bet here.