The Denver Nuggets became the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3–1 deficit twice in the 2020 NBA Playoffs. They beat the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers to earn a spot in the Western Conference Finals for the first time in more than a decade.
Sadly, the Nuggets’ magical playoff run came to an end in the Conference Finals against the eventual NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers. But Denver’s opportunity for redemption lies right at its feet.
The 2021 NBA season tips off on December 22, which means you can continue betting on the Nuggets at Colorado sportsbooks from now until July. Read on to see the latest Nuggets game and futures odds, how you can bet on the Nuggets all year long online in Colorado and more about the team’s history.
During the season, you’ll find the current Nuggets game odds right here. Click on any odds to go directly to the online sportsbook, claim your new player bonus and lock in a bet at those odds.
Below you’ll find the best odds at top Colorado online sportsbooks for the Nuggets to win their division, conference or NBA Finals. Click on any odds to go directly to the online sportsbook, open a new account and get a bet locked in:
Averaging about 20 pts, 10 rbs, and seven assts per game the past few seasons has turned the Nuggets’ seven-foot Serbian center Nikola Jokić into a legit NBA MVP candidate. Here’s a look at the current best odds on Jokić winning MVP or hitting game milestones at top Colorado online sportsbooks:
Whether you want to bet on or against the 2020-21 Denver Nuggets before games or in the middle of the action, there are four things you need to do:
Either way, you place the bet or bets by entering the amount of each wager and clicking the ‘Place Bet’ tab.
The 2020-21 NBA season won’t play out inside a bubble like the end of the 2019-20 season did. That means team travel and possibly fans returning to NBA arenas across the U.S. as well. The NBA plans to address all these issues as the season progresses.
The normal 82-game regular-season schedule will be condensed into a 72-game schedule that begins Dec. 22, 2020. The Nuggets will play three games against every other Western Conference team and two games against every Eastern Conference team.
The league office will randomly assign which Western Conference teams the Nuggets get twice at home and once on the road and which they’ll have to travel to twice. However, all the teams in the Nuggets’ division get two at home and one on the road against teams from the same inter-conference division.
The NBA will release the 2020-21 schedule in two halves; the first half when training camps start in December and the second in the second half of the first. This will include any games postponed in the first half of the schedule. There will be an All-Star break on March 5-10, 2021, and the postseason will start with a playoff Play-In Tournament on May 18-21, 2021.
The tournament will see the No. 7 through No. 10 teams playing for the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds. The No. 7 and No. 8 teams get two chances to win their way in the playoffs while the No. 9 and No. 10 teams have to win twice.
The 2019–20 Denver Nuggets finished the season with a 46–27 record and made it to the Western Conference finals. They lost to the eventual 2019–20 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
They were one of the 22 teams invited to the bubble and in the NBA playoffs. The Nuggets also became the first team ever to come back from being down 3–1 in a series twice and winning. The Nuggets beat the Utah Jazz in seven games after being down 3–1 in the first round, and the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games after being down 3–1 in the Conference Semifinals.
Along the way, Jamal Murray emerged as a legitimate superstar. He raised his regular-season averages of 18.5 points, 4 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game to 26.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game in the playoffs.
Rookie Michael Porter Jr. also emerged as a top scorer and regular contributor. Plus, center Nikola Jokić continued to put up MVP-like numbers, posting regular-season averages of 19.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, and seven assists per game. Jokić also raised his scoring average and rebounding numbers in the playoffs.
The emergence of a big three and the team’s first Western Conference Finals appearance in more than a decade mean high hopes for the Nuggets in the upcoming 2020-21 NBA season.
A typical Nuggets betting line posted at a Colorado online and mobile sportsbook might look like this:
These lines are easy to read once you understand what each number represents. The first number represents the spread with the odds on this bet posted in brackets.
Here, the Nuggets are 3.5-point underdogs to the Lakers. That means the Nuggets have to win, or lose by less than three points, for spread bets on the Nuggets to win. If that happens, Nuggets bettors will win $100, plus their original bet back, for every $110 they bet. That also makes the Lakers 3.5-point favorites, which means the Lakers have to win by four or more points for spread bets on LA to win. Lakers bettors will also win $100, plus their original bet back, for every $110 bet.
The next number represents the moneyline. Here, the Nuggets are +155 underdogs, which means every $100 bet will pay $155, plus the bet back, if the Nuggets win outright. The Lakers are -175 favorites, which means every $175 bet on the Lakers will pay $100, plus the bet back if the Lakers win outright.
The final number you see is the totals line with the odds on the bet posted in brackets. Here, you can bet that the total score will be over or under 203.5 points. Get it right and you get paid $100, plus your original bet back, for every $110 bet.
The NBA betting odds for most Nuggets games will open the same at Colorado online sportsbooks as they do in Las Vegas. However, the Nuggets betting odds may end up quite different from tip-off. That’s because the lines are set to draw an equal amount of betting to both sides.
If more money comes in on one than the other at a particular sportsbook, that sportsbook will move that line. With more local interest in the Nuggets in Colorado than Las Vegas, the lines are more likely to change locally than they are in Vegas.
The Nuggets’ prop bet market might be one of the most fun and exciting in all of the sports betting. This is where you can bet on all kinds of games within a game and the chances of different Nuggets players reaching certain statistical milestones. Here are just a few examples of what you’ll be able to bet on:
Center Nikola Jokić led the Nuggets in scoring, rebounding, and assists throughout the 2019-20 NBA season. He posted regular-season averages of 19.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, and seven assists per game to lead the team.
However, things changed in the playoffs. Jamal Murray took over the team scoring lead averaging 26.5 points per game. Jokić led the team in rebounding, upping his average to 9.8 per game. However, Murray’s 6.6 assists per game were good enough for the team lead in the 2019-20 Playoffs.
What a difference a season makes, as it was Jokić who led the Nuggets in scoring (25.1 ppg), rebounding (13 rpg), and assists (8.4 apg) throughout the 2019-20 NBA Playoffs.
He also led the Nuggets in scoring, rebounding, and assists throughout the 2018-19 NBA regular season. Jokić posted regular-season averages of 20.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game. The big difference is the Nuggets went deeper into the playoffs, going all the way to the Western Conference Finals, behind Murray’s ascendance.
The Nuggets have truly built through the NBA Draft over the past five seasons. It started in 2014 when they chose Doug McDermott No. 11 in the first round and Nikola Jokić 41st in the second round. They traded McDermott, eventually turning that pick into regular rotation players Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkić. They later swapped Nurkić for regular rotation player Mason Plumlee.
The Nuggets scored in the draft again in 2016, selecting Jamal Murray seventh overall. However, they had a bit of a draft misstep a year later, taking Utah Jazz superstar Donovan Mitchell 13th overall and trading him to the Jazz for Trey Lyles and the 24th pick, Tyler Lydon.
In 2018, the Nuggets scored again, drafting Michael Porter Jr. 14th overall. Porter missed his rookie year after back surgery and the Nuggets had no draft picks in 2019.
However, Murray and Jokić helped the team contend in the 2018-19 season. Then, when Porter came back in 2019-20, the trio led the Nuggets to their first Western Conference Finals appearance in more than a decade.
Here’s a look at the 2019-20 Denver Nuggets coaching staff:
Michael Malone has been the coach of the Denver Nuggets since 2015, amassing a 219-182 record. Malone took over for interim head coach Melvin Hunt who was 10-13 in 23 games after taking over for fired coach Brian Shaw. Shaw coached 141 games from 2013 to 2015 going 56-85.
Before that, the Nuggets were George Karl‘s team from 2004 to 2013. He coached 680 games, amassing a 423-257 record. Karl was named 2012–13 NBA Coach of the Year, but he was fired by the team just 29 days later.
The Denver Nuggets’ TV deal is rather complicated. Altitude TV is owned by Nuggets owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. Altitude also owns the Nuggets’ broadcast rights. However, Altitude was dropped by major distributors Comcast, DISH, and DirecTV in 2019 due to a pricing dispute.
Altitude TV Nuggets broadcasts can be streamed on AT&T TV and AT&T TV Now thanks to a new deal signed in 2020. Plus, the broadcasts are back on DirecTV after a deal was signed between the two sides in October 2020.
However, there’s still no deal with Dish Network or Comcast. Comcast owns the largest local market share in Denver.
Denver Nuggets radio broadcasts air on KKSE 92.5FM/950AM.
The Altitude TV Nuggets broadcast team includes:
Colorado sports betting apps will turn your cell phone or tablet into a mobile sportsbook. Then, you can use that mobile sportsbook to bet on the Denver Nuggets while you watch the games from anywhere inside Colorado, including this list of seven Denver bars in the NBA.com Nuggets Bar Network:
The Denver Nuggets were a charter franchise (Denver Rockets) in the American Basketball Association. They became the Nuggets in 1974 and played in the final ABA Championship series in 1976, losing to the New York Nets before the ABA–NBA merger.
The team has never appeared in the NBA Finals. However, the Nuggets may currently be in the midst of their true glory years, having reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time in more than ten years in 2020. The Nuggets were led by top scorer Alex English for most of the 1980s. In 1984–85 and 1985-86, they made two consecutive Western Conference Finals appearances.
Denver drafted center Dikembe Mutombo in 1991 and by the 1993–94 season, they began to contend again. The 1993–94 Nuggets became the first No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the NBA Playoffs after downing the Seattle Supersonics that season.
In 2003, the Nuggets drafted Carmelo Anthony with the third overall pick and immediately became contenders again. The Nuggets soon became a perennial playoff team and playoff disappointment with George Karl as head coach. The team added Allen Iverson in 2006, giving them the top two scorers in the league. However, the playoff disappointments continued.
The Nuggets traded Iverson to the Detroit Pistons for Chauncey Billups in 2008 and he helped Karl and Anthony win their first playoff series that year. In fact, the Nuggets made their first trip to the Western Conference Finals since 1985, losing in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, they returned to losing in the first round for the sixth time in seven seasons the very next year. In 2011, the Nuggets traded Anthony and Billups to the New York Knicks. Denver made the playoffs and lost in the first round again. In 2013, Karl was named NBA Coach of the Year and was subsequently fired.
The team became contenders again after drafting Nikola Jokić in 2014 and Jamal Murray in 2016.
In July 2000, real estate entrepreneur Stan Kroenke bought the Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche NHL team, and the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Center), where they both play, for $450 million.
Kroenke placed the teams into a trust making sure they will stay in Denver until at least 2025. His company Kroenke Sports Enterprises took ownership of the team but was reorganized as Kroenke Sports & Entertainment under his wife Ann’s name to satisfy NFL ownership laws since Kroenke also owns the Los Angeles Rams.
According to Forbes, the Denver Nuggets are worth approximately $1.6 billion. That makes them 18th among the NBA’s 30 teams.
Nuggets tickets for as little as $19 each, but the average price is $102. Courtside seats cost around $475 each.
Nuggets tickets will go on sale soon after the NBA releases the 2020-21 schedule and plans for fan attendance at games. In the meantime, you can place a deposit on Denver Nuggets Half & Quarter Season ticket plans by calling 303-287-DUNK (3865) or online through https://nuggets.teamkse.com/depositinforequestweb/
Since joining the NBA for the 1976–77 season, the Nuggets have made the playoffs 26 times. However, they have never gone further than the Western Conference Finals.
Seven Jerseys hang in the rafters at the newly named Ball Center in Denver, including:
@nuggets is the Denver Nuggets official Twitter account. It promises Tweets from a mile up and everything #MileHighBasketball related.
They were the ABA’s Denver Rockets. However, when it looked like the ABA would be joining the NBA, where there was already a San Diego (now Houston) Rockets, Denver renamed the team the Nuggets as a reference to the 19th-century gold and silver mining boom in Colorado.
The ABA’s Denver Rockets were black, orange, and white. Once they entered the NBA the Nuggets uniform featured a “Maxie The Miner” logo with red, blue, and gold colors.
Throughout the 1980s the team used jerseys with a rainbow skyline logo. In the 1990s, the Nuggets wore royal blue and gold. With Carmelo Anthony came a color scheme change to powder blue, gold, and royal blue.
The current color scheme is now midnight blue, sunshine yellow, flatirons red, and skyline blue.