After gutting out a victory in their first game without injured star Nikola Jokic, the Denver Nuggets try for back-to-back wins in the middle of a seven-game road trip when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight.<\/p>\n
Cleveland is starting to look like last season\u2019s dominant version and is a massive 13-point favorite over the depleted Nuggets.<\/p>\n
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However, my Nuggets vs Cavaliers predictions and NBA picks still have Denver keeping it close on Friday, January 2.<\/p>\n
Nuggets vs Cavaliers prediction<\/p>\n
Nuggets vs Cavaliers best bet: Nuggets +13.5 (-110)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all about the next man up mentality for the Denver Nuggets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Against Toronto, that was reserve Peyton Watson, who scored a team-best 24 points, to help Jamal Murray<\/a>, who had 21 points, seven boards, and six assists, land the plane.<\/p>\n Already without starters Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Christian Braun (ankle), and Cam Johnson (knee), the Nuggets won\u2019t have Nikola Jokic or his backup Jonas Valanciunas against the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>, after JV strained his calf against Toronto.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Cleveland is coming off a 129-113 whipping of Phoenix, and the team has picked up wins in four of the last six.<\/p>\n The offense has been singing in those victories, with the Cavs averaging 130.5 points and winning all four by double-digits.<\/p>\n The last two wins have added significance, as Cleveland has struggled against teams with winning records, and victories over San Antonio and Phoenix bring that record to 6-11.<\/p>\n Still, even with all of the Nuggets’ injuries, Murray is performing at an All-Star level and just might be playing well enough to carry whatever squad is on the floor to be competitive.<\/p>\n Denver is the highest-scoring team in the NBA and has the top field-goal and 3-point shooting numbers in the league.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Couple that with Cleveland\u2019s plus 3.2-point differential at home, and that 13 points feels like a generous cushion, even for injury-riddled Denver.<\/p>\n Nuggets vs Cavaliers same-game parlay<\/p>\n Donovan Mitchell<\/a> is coming off a 34-point night against the Suns, but it\u2019s just the second time in his last five that he\u2019s touched 30 points.<\/p>\n Jarrett Allen<\/a>\u2019s board work got a little less challenging with news of both Jokic and Valanciunas being out, giving him plenty of room to control the glass. He\u2019s already held his own pretty well against Joker & Co. since joining Cleveland, pulling down at least 10 boards in six of nine games against Denver.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Nuggets vs Cavaliers SGP<\/p>\n Donovan Mitchell Under 29.5 points<\/p>\n Jarrett Allen Over 8.5 rebounds<\/p>\n Our “from downtown” SGP: Triples is Best<\/p>\n Murray shot a blistering 50.5% from 3-point range in December.<\/p>\n Evan Mobley<\/a> has connected on at least one triple four times in the last five games against Denver, going 10-for-17.<\/p>\n Nuggets vs Cavaliers SGP<\/p>\n Donovan Mitchell Under 29.5 points<\/p>\n Jarrett Allen Over 8.5 rebounds<\/p>\n Jamal Murray Over 2.5 threes<\/p>\n Evan Mobley Over 0.5 threes<\/p>\n Nuggets vs Cavaliers odds<\/p>\n Spread: Nuggets +13.5 (-110) | Cavaliers -13.5 (-110)<\/p>\n Moneyline: Nuggets +550 | Cavaliers -800<\/p>\n Over\/Under: Over 238 (-110) | Under 238 (-110)<\/p>\n Nuggets vs Cavaliers betting trend to know<\/p>\n Six of the last seven games between these teams have gone Over the total. Find more\u00a0NBA betting trends<\/a> for Nuggets vs. Cavaliers.<\/p>\n How to watch Nuggets vs Cavaliers<\/p>\n Location<\/p>\n Rocket Arena, Cleveland, OH<\/p>\n Date<\/p>\n Friday, January 2, 2026<\/p>\n Tip-off<\/p>\n 7:30 p.m. ET<\/p>\n TV<\/p>\n Prime<\/p>\n Nuggets vs Cavaliers latest injuries<\/p>\n Not intended for use in MA. Advertisement<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Covers.com<\/a>, read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After gutting out a victory in their first game without injured star Nikola Jokic, the Denver Nuggets try…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[877,7,1828,306,561,305,193,3846,187,864,576,762,1178,6,253,1146,969,604,680],"class_list":{"0":"post-515823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cam-johnson","11":"tag-cavaliers","12":"tag-christian-braun","13":"tag-cleveland","14":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","15":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","16":"tag-denver-nuggets","17":"tag-donovan-mitchell","18":"tag-evan-mobley","19":"tag-jamal-murray","20":"tag-jarrett-allen","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-nikola-jokic","23":"tag-peyton-watson","24":"tag-san-antonio","25":"tag-suns","26":"tag-toronto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115836263080382777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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