Filip Tomic
The season is on the line for both the Clippers and the Nuggets as they clash in Game 7 of their West 1st Round on Saturday. You don’t want to miss this game – tip-off is schedule for 7.30 pm ET on TNT. I’ve prepared a Same Game Parlay at +348 odds which includes a Money Line pick as well as a pair of player prop bets.
Get predictions on the side and total for all NBA postseason games on our NBA Picks page, but now let’s get into my Clippers vs Nuggets Game 7 SGP!
DEN Nuggets ML (-116)
Michael Porter Jr. 2+ Made Threes (+104)
James Harden to Record 8+ Assists (-265)
Same Game Parlay odds: +348
DEN Nuggets ML (-116)
It doesn’t get any more exciting than this – Game 7. The Clippers and Nuggets have gone back and forth in this series, with not much to separate the 2 teams ahead of Saturday’s winner-take-all matchup. Ivica Zubac did his best in holding Nikola Jokic below his season averages on Thursday, contributing heavily in a win for the Clippers. Experience will come into play on Saturday, and both Harden and Kawhi Leonard have each played in six Game 7s. If you’re a Clippers fan, you have to ask yourself whether you trust the Beard to come up big again.
This will be a familiar situation for the Joker and his teammates, as the Nuggets flamed out in the West semis last year at home in a Game 7 scenario against Minnesota. Jamal Murray has delivered big time in his last two Game 7s, scoring 35 against Minnesota and dropping 40 against the Nuggets back in the bubble. Saturday’s game will be the 152nd Game 7 in NBA history (not counting the bubble season when nobody had home court) and we’ve seen the home team come out on top 110 times. I’m inclined to give a small edge to the Nuggets simply because they have the best player in the series and what will almost certainly be a raucous crowd behind them at Ball Arena. He was relatively quiet in Game 6, and going out as the higher seed in a Game 7 in back-to-back seasons wouldn’t look good on his resume.
Read our full LA Clippers vs Denver Nuggets Game 7 Predictions
Michael Porter Jr. 2+ Made Threes (+104)
The question all Denver Nuggets fans are wondering ahead of Game 7 – can MPJ be the wild card for their team? Bothered by a shoulder injury, Porter Jr. hasn’t been anywhere close to his regular season form in this series, he’s only 6th in scoring at just 10.2 points per game. That number is down from 18.2 per game during the regular season when he was the 3rd best scorer behind Jokic and Murray. So why exactly back him to do well here? Well, it’s not like he forgot to play basketball overnight. We all know how great of a scorer MPJ can be on given nights; at his size he is one of the most lethal three point shooters when his shot is going down. And it’s not like it hasn’t in this series, MPJ is at 46.2% efficiency from downtown in the 6 games so far. The issues is he’s taking only 8.3 shots per game, 4.3 of which are threes. But, with the Nuggets season on the line I’m sure he’ll let it fly from deep. Last year he was one of the biggest disappointments in Denver’s Game 7 loss to Minnesota in the Conference Semis, scoring just 7 points on 3-for-12 shooting. Saturday’s game is an ideal opportunity to make amends and I believe he does just that.
James Harden to Record 8+ Assists (-265)
Harden played his heart out in Game 6 in what was arguably his best game of the series so far. The Beard finished with 28 points and 8 assists and logged 47 mins total. Granted, he was a bit gassed towards the end of that game, but that is to be expected from a player that’s turning 36 years old in August. From an assists perspective he’s fully delivered in this series averaging 8.5 dimes per game, which is just around what he averaged (8.7) during the regular season. He also went into double figures in two of the games, it goes without saying that the Clippers depend on his creativity heavily on the offensive end. Harden’s legacy took a big hit in his last Game 7 when he had just 9 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists on 3-for-11 shooting vs Boston when he was with the Philadelphia 76ers. He does have a bit of reputation of choking in the clutch in big games, this is the ideal opportunity for him to prove his doubters wrong. Too bad for the Clippers it will be in a losing effort.
