Preview: Denver Nuggets vs. Boston Celtics – prediction, team news, form guide

Arguably the pick of the matches on Wednesday morning in the NBA will see the Boston Celtics travel to Ball Arena to take on the Denver Nuggets.

The Nuggets (20-14) are now in fourth place in the Western Conference standings, while the Celtics (26-10) are in second place in the East.

Match preview

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The Denver Nuggets are enjoying a solid run of form lately, winning four of their last five matches after beating the San Antonio Spurs 122-111 in overtime on the second leg of their back-to-back on Sunday.

Nikola Jokic turned in another masterful performance, leading the team with 46 points, nine assists and 10 rebounds, while Michael Porter Jr added 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Jamal Murray chipped in with 13 points.

Russell Westbrook had a fairly quiet night, finishing with nine points, 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals, but still made NBA history in the game, surpassing Nuggets legend Alex English into 22nd on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

The Joker scored nine points in the extra period to level the home-and-home series on consecutive nights, but the concern for Michael Malone will be that his bench players put up just 18 points, while the Spurs’ reserves delivered 41.

With that result, the Nuggets are now the third-highest-scoring team in the NBA this season, averaging 120.8 points per game, but tey could use improvement on defence, where they are ranked 24th overall, allowing 117.2 PPG.

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Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics have not been performing at their usual high standards, having now split their last 10 games five wins and five defeats after going down 105-92 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.

In what many considered a preview of this season’s NBA Finals, Jayson Tatum led the C’s with 26 points and 10 rebounds, Jaylen Brown contributed 21 points and three assists while Kristaps Porzingis added 19 points and nine rebounds.

The defending champions, at full strength for the first time this season, led the match by 10 at the half time interval, but fell apart in the second period, managing just 27 points over the final two quarters against the NBA’s top-ranked defence.

Notably, Brown, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday all failed to score a single point in the second half, combining for 0 of 13 from the field and 0 of nine from beyond the arc over the final two quarters.

Following the defeat (which was OKC’s 15th straight victory), Joe Mazzulla‘s side are still favourites to defend their title this season, but the gap in the betting odds have been slashed significantly, with the Thunder now second-favourite by a fraction.

Boston are still a top-10 side on both ends this season, though, third in the scoring charts (118.5 PPG) and sixth on the defensive end (108.3 PPG); however, they now have a cover rate of just 40% (14-21-1 ATS).