Denver Nuggets vs Los Angeles Clippers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Thursday, 02/19/26

Denver is one of the teams that needed this one week break really badly, their injury situation hasn’t improved at all lately. With recharged batteries and a fully recovered Nikola Jokic they look to continue their quest of capturing the number two seed in the loaded West. San Antonio is now 3.5 games ahead, there’s plenty of time for the Nuggets to put together a win streak to catch them in my opinion. But even if that doesn’t happen, a veteran team like the Nuggets will be just fine going into the postseason as long as they get all their players back from injury. Aaron Gordon is likely to come back before the month is finished, his presence could be the key factor down the line in the postseason.

The Clippers are also hoping to make some noise in the postseason, despite trading away their main point guard and center before the trade deadline. It’s been the Kawhi Leonard show ever since those events took place and with the way he has been playing, you could argue this is the best he has looked in a Clippers uniform. The Klaw even took the ASG seriously, scoring 31 points against Team World on 84% shooting from the field. Against the Nuggets though, the Clippers might need even more than that, if we are judging them by the first two meetings this season. Denver dominated both of those games, at the Intuit Dome the Clippers fell 130-116 back in mid-November.

Slowing down Nikola Jokic will be the key for LA here, I just don’t know how they do it now that they’ve gotten rid of Ivica Zubac. Big Zu played Jokic as good as everyone in the NBA, but even with him on the roster the 3-time MVP was putting up triple-doubles. With not so much resistance to encounter down low and a fresh perspective following All-Star weekend, I have high hopes for the Joker coming into Thursday’s game. Give me the Nuggets here.

Nuggets vs Clippers prediction: Nuggets -3.5 (-115) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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