Nuggets vs Pelicans

Nikola Jokic will miss Thursday night's game with right calf tightness, Denver announced.

Jokic is averaging 24.9 points, 11.9 rebounds and 9.9 assists this season. 1 seed in the Western Conference. The decision on Jokic was made about an hour before tipoff.

The Denver Nuggets will be without their MVP candidate for Thursday's game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Mike Singer of the Denver Post reported Nikola…

[fifth](https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/defense?dir=A&sort=DEF_RATING) in the league in defensive rating, per NBA.com, wouldn't have been easy, but it is a missed opportunity to further build his case in a nationally televised game on TNT. That it is a calf injury is all the more notable because Embiid missed Monday's head-to-head matchup against the Nuggets with his own calf issue. [Tim Bontemps](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35983235/nba-mvp-straw-poll-30-why-margin-joel-embiid-nikola-jokic-become-razor-thin) released the latest update to his MVP straw poll Thursday, and Jokić was second behind Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers in total points even though the Nuggets star led in first-place votes with 42. [Mike Singer](https://twitter.com/msinger/status/1641603399014572033) of the Denver Post reported Nikola Jokić will not be available because of a calf injury. There's never an ideal time for an injury, but Jokić is in the middle of a hotly contested MVP race. [listed](https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/referee/injury/Injury-Report_2023-03-30_07PM.pdf) as questionable with right calf tightness.

We break down Thursday night's Nuggets-Pelicans nightcap, providing our best bet and favorite player prop bet for this Western Conference showdown.

Denver won all 10 of those games, and covered nine of the ten. Or will New Orleans make a move to slide past the Lakers for the eight-seed? Kevon Looney and Draymond Green just held him to nine boards in Golden State on Tuesday — here's betting he'll be limited to ten or fewer again tonight. 1 record in his conference and (b) he has made every one of his teammates better in the process. The last time New Orleans traveled to Ball Arena with Zion inactive, the Nugs won 122-113, fueled by a 36-24 third quarter. Since the 2022-23 NBA season tipped off, the Nuggets have been favored at home by between five and seven points 10 different times. For all the squawking JoJo has done about losing MVPs to Jokic, he sure avoided walking the walk in that one). Joker may act like he doesn't care about the award, but we all know that deep down his competitive fire will fuel him to battle for it. With just over five percent of the NBA regular season remaining, we are smack-dab in the middle of the 'home stretch.' Basically 75 percent of the teams in the Association are gunning for wins right now, including the Nuggets and Pelicans in this evening's nightcap (10 p.m. The Nuggets draw Phoenix tomorrow, one of the bigger threats in the West when Kevin Durant is active alongside Devin Booker, so it's possible Denver will rest its franchise player to save his energy for tomorrow's tilt. Zion is and always will be a game-changer, capable of explosive takeovers that leave defenses slack-jawed in disbelief. Nikola Jokic and the top-seeded Nugs look to cruise to the finish line and maintain home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, while Brandon Ingram and the Pels are trying to move up in — or out of — the play-in tournament.

Urgency is starting to creep in for teams in the middle of the play-in tournament as we have a handful of NBA regular season games left. The New Orleans.

[Kentavious Caldwell-Pope](https://www.lineups.com/nfl/player-stats/kentavious-caldwell-pope) [Jamal Murray](https://www.lineups.com/nfl/player-stats/jamal-murray) [Jonas Valanciunas](https://www.lineups.com/nfl/player-stats/jonas-valanciunas) [Herbert Jones](https://www.lineups.com/nfl/player-stats/herbert-jones) [Brandon Ingram](https://www.lineups.com/nfl/player-stats/brandon-ingram) [CJ McCollum](https://www.lineups.com/nfl/player-stats/cj-mccollum) This would leave openings at the perimeter, giving them the opportunity to keep up their hot shooting from three. With Murphy catching fire, the Pelicans have shot an insane 50.6% in their last three contests. They hold opposing offenses to a lowly 34.4%. They rank first in Opposing Three Point Percentage by holding opposing offenses to a lowly 34%. The New Orleans Pelicans are one of those teams and find themselves in a must win situation as a +5.5 underdog to the conference leading Denver Nuggets. Urgency is starting to creep in for teams in the middle of the play-in tournament as we have a handful of NBA regular season games left.

NBA odds, picks, and predictions for the New Orleans Pelicans at Denver Nuggets on March 30. NBA betting best bet and free pick analysis.

McCollum](https://www.covers.com/sport/basketball/nba/players/749/cj-mccollum) assignments. Don’t count on the Pelicans to serve up a free-scoring shootout here. The bench, heavily dependent on Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, continues to be a question mark, and the non-Jokic minutes are rarely smooth. It’s 6-1 in their last seven games after an ATS loss, and points could come at a premium for the visitors tonight against a Denver team with Murray’s dual threat as a jump shooter and a driver should lead to similar scoring opportunities, especially if he can create mismatches and get [Jonas Valanciunas](https://www.covers.com/sport/basketball/nba/players/1651/jonas-valanciunas) switched onto him in space. Clippers last weekend), and the visitors have covered the spread in each of their last five games when playing on one day’s rest. New Orleans has allowed 110 points or fewer in five of its last six games — albeit against a very friendly schedule. But the Pelicans are dangerous, even with Zion Williamson still sidelined. The Nuggets’ 129-106 win over the Bucks last weekend was especially noteworthy, with Jokic scoring 31 points and getting plenty of help from Murray. A combination of Jokic’s wizardry and Denver’s 32-6 home record makes the Nuggets a 6.5-point favorite tonight. As the Denver Nuggets inch closer to clinching the No. 9 seed after its five-game win streak was snapped in a 120-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors Tuesday.