The Denver Nuggets are playing in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. The Nuggets are currently a heavy favorites to win the 2023 NBA title. Denver opened the postseason with the second shortest odds among Western Conference teams.
By sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals, the Nuggets are in pursuit of their first ever NBA championship. The Denver Nuggets are playing the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat in the 2023 NBA Finals. Nuggets versus Heat game lines, series prices and props are available to bet on below.
Denver earned the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference after finishing the regular season with 53 wins. Denver displayed some inconsistency late in the campaign that led to some critical comments from head coach Mike Malone, but thanks to MVP-caliber play from Nikola Jokic, a resurgent season from Jamal Murray, and another solid all-around effort from 2018 first-round pick Michael Porter Jr., the Nuggets are considered a top-tier contender for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Denver Nuggets odds
View the updated Denver Nuggets odds below, including moneyline, point spreads and totals.
The Denver Nuggets now hold a 2-1 advantage over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals following a 109-94 Game 3 road victory at the Kaseya Center. Nikola Jokic (32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists) and Jamal Murray (34 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) made NBA Finals history by finishing with 30-point triple-doubles. Game 4 takes place in Miami on Friday, June 9 at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Jokic is now averaging 33.3 PPG, 14 RPG and 9.3 APG in this year’s NBA Finals while Murray is averaging 26 PPG and 10 APG versus the Heat.
Jimmy Butler, who is leading the Heat offense with 27.3 PPG during the postseason, had 28 points in Game 3.
Denver opened as a -3.5 favorite for Game 4 with a total of 210.5
Denver Nuggets vs. Miami Heat Series Odds
The Nuggets are now 4-1 versus the Heat this season. The Nuggets versus Heat NBA Finals series odds are Denver at -800 and Miami at +550.
Nuggets NBA title odds
The Nuggets’ occasional hiccups aside, Denver remains a team that offers a potent mix of young talent and experience that has demonstrated solid balance on both ends of the floor throughout the season. Denver was projected to finish in the top 10 in both points per game scored and allowed. Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets have some of the lowest NBA playoffs odds.
There was a bigger-than-ideal discrepancy in the team’s home/road splits, however, which could prove a challenge in the postseason. Denver closed out the regular season with a 34-7 record at Ball Arena, a stark contrast to its 19-22 road mark.
While Jokic and Murray have indisputably served as the key cogs in the Nuggets engine, the team isn’t without effective complementary assets. Porter has been relatively healthy by his standards while flashing his trademark shooting efficiency from all over the floor, while Aaron Gordon put together a resurgent season on the offensive end reminiscent of his days with the Magic earlier in his career. Veteran “3 and D” specialist Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and veterans Bruce Brown and Reggie Jackson also offer Malone versatility and savvy.
The Grizzlies, which gave Denver quite a run for the No. 1 seed late in the season, the Kings and the Suns could ultimately prove to be the primary obstacles to Denver emerging from the Western Conference.
All three teams have given the Nuggets some tough battles this season, and Denver went a combined 6-4 against the trio of squads, and includes winning a meaningless regular-season finale against the Kings.
In terms of a final obstacle to a championship, the Nuggets, by the odds, are likeliest to face either the Milwaukee Bucks or Boston Celtics. Denver split both two-game series with those teams this season.
Nuggets roster
- G Jamal Murray
- G Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
- F Michael Porter Jr.
- F Aaron Gordon
- C Nikola Jokic
- F Bruce Brown
- G Reggie Jackson
- G Ish Smith
- G Christian Braun
- F Peyton Watson
- F Vlatko Cancar
- F Jeff Green
- C Thomas Bryant
- F Zeke Nnaji
- C DeAndre Jordan
- F Jack White (two-way contract)
- G Collin Gillespie (two-way contract)
Who are the best players on the Nuggets?
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are indisputably the Nuggets’ two top players by a fairly significant margin.
Jokic is averaging of 24.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, a career-high 9.8 assists and 1.3 steals, as well as career-best 63.2 percent shooting. Jokic has also churned out an NBA-high 29 triple-doubles, an astounding figure even by his standards.
Meanwhile, Murray has made an impressive comeback from having missed the entire 2021-22 season due to a torn ACL, as he entered his final regular-season appearance with averages of 20.0 points, a career-high 6.2 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 steal, along with the second-highest three-point shooting percentage of his career (39.8).
Nuggets props
The Lines’ dynamic prop search tool allows bettors to quickly identify the best possible price among top legal, regulated sportsbooks. The mechanism enables bettors looking to capitalize on wagering opportunities for star players such as Jokic and Murray to quickly identify the most potentially profitable scenarios.
For example, say Jokic is facing a Rockets team that’s highly vulnerable defensively, particularly against a player of the big man’s diverse skill set. Using The Lines’ prop search tool, a bettor can find the best possible price on Jokic points + rebounds +assists prop bets, or any other prop wagers available for the star big man.
Nuggets current season
The Nuggets entered the 2022-23 season with expectations of once again qualifying for the postseason after a 2021-22 campaign where they finished with a 48-34 record and were jettisoned in the first round by the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in five games.
Murray’s expected return to full health and another projected stellar season by Jokic fueled the optimism, while the addition of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope via trade was also expected to upgrade Denver’s defensive capability. Then, Michael Porter, Jr., who’d played in just nine games during the 2021-22 season due to injury, was also expected to make a significant impact in the new campaign.
All three players indeed delivered handsomely, which served as the foundation for the Nuggets’ considerable success. Good health largely prevailed for the three stars and talented big man Aaron Gordon, who was a key complementary source of scoring and rebounding while demonstrating career-best shooting efficiency.
After a solid but unspectacular 14-10 start to the season, Mike Malone’s club changed the entire dynamic of its season by winning 19 of 22 games between Dec. 8 and Jan. 20. The cushion inherent in the 33-13 record that torrid stretch forged gave the Nuggets the necessary cushion to withstand a couple of subsequent rough patches and a spirited challenge from the Memphis Grizzles for the top seed that fell just short in the final days of the regular season.
Nuggets transactions
- July 6, 2022: Traded Monte Morris and Will Barton to the Washington Wizards for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith.
- July 7, 2022: Signed Bruce Brown to a multi-year contract.
- February 9, 2023: As part of four-team trade, Nuggets received Thomas Bryant from the Los Angeles Lakers and traded Bones Hyland to the Los Angeles Clippers. Nuggets also traded 2024 second-round pick to the Orlando Magic.
- February 14, 2023: Signed Reggie Jackson.
The offseason trade that netted Caldwell-Pope and Smith has worked out well for both sides of the transaction. On the Nuggets’ end, Caldwell-Pope has brought an effective defensive presence and has recorded a career-high 1.5 steals per contest while also shooting a career-best 41.5 percent from behind the arc. And, while Smith has been used sparingly, he adds to the team’s experienced depth at point guard.
The offseason signing of Brown has proved pivotal as well. The 2018 second-round pick has been a key contributor off the bench and as a spot starter, putting up a career-high 11.4 points alongside 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals while shooting a tidy 48.2 percent.
Bryant hasn’t been utilized much behind Jokic as of yet, but he could work into a bigger role come the postseason and is capable of offering starter-quality production. And, much like Smith, while Jackson hasn’t been utilized extensively, he provides another security blanket for Malone in the backcourt and is capable of providing some solid offense off the bench.
How to bet on the Nuggets
There are a multitude of ways to place bets on the Nuggets throughout the NBA regular season and postseason — moneyline, point sprad, over/under, futures, props, live betting, parlays and teasers are just some of the wagers available through top legal, regulated sportsbooks.
Moneyline
Moneyline wagers involve placing a bet on a team to win a game outright. Using the same Nuggets-Kings example, say Denver is a -150 favorite. That means bettors placing a bet on a Nuggets victory will win $1 for every $1.50 they wagered if a win does indeed come to pass. If Denver loses, the bettor will lose the amount they originally staked.
Point Spread
Point spread wagers involve placing a bet on the margin of victory or defeat a team will produce in a certain game. For example, say the Nuggets are favored by 5 points in a matchup against the Sacramento Kings, denoted as “-5” on a sportsbook’s betting market. Bettors wagering the Nuggets -5 will cash their tickets if Denver beats Sacramento by at least six points. If they win by exactly 5, they’ll receive back the amount they originally staked, while if they win by less than 5 or lose outright, the bettor will lose the amount they originally staked.
Point total (over/under)
An over-under wager involves betting whether a game, quarter, half, etc. will end over or under a certain point total for either both or one of the teams in a game. For example, say the projected total for a hypothetical Kings-Nuggets game is 230 points. Bettors placing a wager on the Over will cash their tickets if the game ends with a combined score of 231 points or more, and they’ll lose the amount staked if ends with 229 points or less. The game ending exactly with 230 points would result in the bettor getting the original amount staked in return but no actual winnings.
Futures
Futures wagers involve placing a bet on an outcome that won’t unfold until a later date, such as the end of a season. An example of a futures wager involving the Nuggets would have been a bet prior to the start of the season on whether they’d finish with the top seed in the Western Conference. Bettors who would have placed that wager would have cashed their tickets in conjunction with whatever odds the wager carried at the time.
Other Nuggets bets
Other ways to bet on the Nuggets include prop bets (i.e. whether a player or the team itself will exceed or fall below a certain statistical benchmark), live betting (wagers placed as a game is ongoing and based on certain in-game events), parlays (i.e. placing a bet on the Nuggets winning and Jokic scoring over a certain amount of points, or a bet on both the Nuggets and another team winning on the same night) and teasers (lowering the point spread the Nuggets are favored by against a certain opponent and betting another team by adding the same number of points to the spread of their game).
Nuggets Franchise History
The roots of the current Denver Nuggets franchise trace back to the American Basketball Association’s Denver Rockets, which were in existence between the 1967-1968 and 1973-74 seasons. The team changed its name to the Nuggets for the start of the 1974-1975 campaign and officially began play in the NBA in the 1976-77 season following the merger of the two leagues.
The Nuggets have enjoyed various periods of success, with the period coming between the 1980-81 and 1989-90 seasons. Under the leadership of Doug Moe in that decade, Denver recorded a 432-357 regular-season record and 24-37 mark in the postseason. The likes of Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe spearheaded some stellar offensive teams that nevertheless frequently came up short on the defensive end.
Legendary coach George Karl’s tenure with the franchise, which spanned from the 2004-05 to the 2012-13 seasons, saw the Nuggets put together a stellar 423-257 regular-season mark, albeit with an accompanying 21-38 tally in the postseason. The era was highlighted by the drafting of Carmelo Anthony in 2003 and the trade acquisition of Allen Iverson in December 2006.
The Mike Malone Era began with the 2014-15 season and that has been highlighted by Jokic’s emergence into a perennial MVP candidate and the drafting of Murray in 2016. While the team has also recorded another 21 postseason wins during Malone’s ongoing tenure, Denver’s decades-long quest for its first NBA title persists heading into the 2022-23 postseason.
FAQ
Who is favored to win 2023 NBA Finals?
Now that the 2022-23 regular season is over, the Milwaukee Bucks are the NBA title favorites with odds and hold a slight advantage over the Boston Celtics . Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers are another team to watch.
Thanks to the addition of Kevin Durant via trade, the Phoenix Suns enter the NBA Playoffs as the Western Conference favorite. The defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors and Nuggets are next are among the other top contenders.
What are the odds that the Nuggets are going to win the championship this year?
At +1100, oddsmakers are giving the Nuggets 11 to 1 odds to win the NBA title this season, with an implied probability of 8.3%.
Will the Nuggets make the playoffs?
Yes. The Nuggets are in the postseason with the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed. They will will face the winner of Friday’s play-in tournament game that will determine the No. 8 seed.