Not their shots.

Not their injured All-Star.

Stephen Curry had 30 points and 13 assists, and the scrappy Warriors handed the Denver Nuggets their first loss at home in more than three months, a 131-117 stunner that evened their playoff series at a game each.

Rallying around injured David Lee, who cheered from the bench in street clothes, the Warriors got 26 points from surprise starter Jarrett Jack, a career-high 24 from rookie Harrison Barnes in his debut at power forward and 21 from Klay Thompson.

The sixth-seeded Warriors, who became the second road team to win in this postseason following Chicago’s victory at Brooklyn on Monday, wrested home-court advantage in the series from the NBA’s best home team. The series shifts to Oakland for Game 3 on Friday night.

“They were knocking down shots,” Denver’s Andre Iguodala said in an understatement.

Better than they ever had before in a playoff game, with a franchise playoff-record 64.6 percent (51-of-79) from the field.

“We are a very good shooting basketball team,” Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. “We’ve got guys that can knock down shots. You talk about Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, in my opinion, they’re the greatest shooting backcourt in the history of the game.”

The third-seeded Nuggets were an NBA-best 38-3 at home during the regular season but needed Andre Miller’s last-second shot to beat Golden State by a basket in the opener and extend their franchise-best winning streak to 24 games.

With Golden State losing Lee to a torn hip flexor and the Nuggets getting top rebounder and energizer Kenneth Faried back from a sprained ankle, this one looked like a mismatch, even Curry acknowledged.

And it was, but not the way the Pepsi Center crowd anticipated.

“We’re a resilient team, said that all year. When guys go down, other guys step up,” said Curry, who played despite a tender left ankle after turning it late in the third quarter. “We showed that tonight. Big road win for us. We’ve got to go home and protect our home court.”

Even without their All-Star, the Warriors outrebounded the Nuggets 36-26.

“We didn’t do much of anything very well,” Nuggets coach George Karl lamented. “I don’t think I ever coached a game when a team got three 35-point quarters, maybe in my career. Ever.”

The best anybody shot against Denver during the season was 54 percent, by the Los Angeles Lakers way back on Nov. 20, and the most points the Nuggets had allowed was 126 at San Antonio on Nov. 17.

Ty Lawson and Corey Brewer each scored 19 points for Denver, and Iguodala and Miller each had 18, but the Nuggets were playing catch-up from the middle of the second quarter and couldn’t keep up with so many of the Warriors’ shots falling, negating Denver’s league-best transition game.

Lee led the league with 56 double-doubles and had another before getting hurt in the fourth quarter of the series opener Saturday. The Warriors were 3-18 without him over the past three seasons, but Jackson mixed and matched his lineup to make up for his All-Star’s absence on this night, when Lee gave advice to his teammates during timeouts.

The Nuggets were hoping Faried’s return would help reverse their 10-point disadvantage on the boards in Game 1. But he was rusty, and the same problems that plagued Denver in the opener — missing too many open shots, getting outmuscled on the glass and giving up open 3-pointers — haunted the Nuggets once again and even more so.

Curry scored 15 points in the second quarter and hit four jumpers during a 14-5 run the Warriors used to grab control and take the air out of the Pepsi Center as they cruised into halftime with a 61-53 lead that would never be threatened in the second half.

Curry swished another sweet jumper to start the third quarter, and the Warriors opened up a 17-point lead they would stretch to 20 in the fourth quarter.

“The game plan tonight was to keep the ball out of Stephen Curry’s hands, but he came off [the pick-and-rolls] and had open looks and then he started finding people,” Lawson said. “After that, we started scrambling, and we can’t play like that.”

The Nuggets pulled within 76-69, but Thompson hit a 3-pointer from the right corner and Curry a 3 from the left to make it 82-69. Both were wide open, as Denver’s mismatched defenders were again running ragged trying to keep up with the Warriors, who handled the altitude just fine.

Denver got its deficit down to 115-105, but this time it was Jack’s turn to make a wide-open 3 with the Nuggets’ defenders scrambling around.

Faried finished with four points and two rebounds in 21 minutes.

The arena was half-empty by the time the horn sounded, a solitary fan yelling derisively, “Tacos!” when Evan Fournier’s free throw fell through the hoop to give the Nuggets 110 points, the magic number for a promotion in which fans get discounted tacos.

Game notes

The Warriors shot a sizzling 61 percent in the first half, when they outrebounded the Nuggets 21-14. … The Nuggets’ previous loss at home was 112-108 to the Washington Wizards on Jan. 18. … Denver had just eight fast-break points, compared to Golden State’s 14. … Curry’s 30-10 playoff game was the first for the franchise since Sleepy Floyd on May 10, 1987.

The post Stephen Curry, Warriors send Nuggets to rare home loss appeared first on IdealCapper.

In the first round, at least.

Ty Lawson scored 26 points, including a jumper in the lane with 9.3 seconds left, and the Denver Nuggets clinched home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a 112-111 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night.

Wilson Chandler added 21 points for the Nuggets, who are 37-3 at home and have a 22-game winning streak at home. They can secure the No. 3 seed in the West with one more victory or two losses by the Los Angeles Clippers.

“I think it’s huge,” Denver coach George Karl said. “Don’t get me wrong. The teams we’re going to play in the first round are capable of beating us on our home court. I’ve always felt that home court, if it was an even series, it’s tough for teams to win twice on your home court. And our home court, I know teams don’t like to play there. Hopefully mentally they struggle with the thought of playing there.”

Milwaukee lost its season-high fifth game in a row despite Monta Ellis scoring 38 points, one shy of his season high. His six 3-pointers were the most he’s had this season, and he didn’t even attend the morning shootaround because he was sick.

“Now is not the time to throw a pity party,” Ellis said.

Ellis’ four-point play with 14.2 seconds left gave the Bucks a 111-110 lead. Ellis, who had 19 fourth-quarter points, drilled a 3-pointer from the right side and made a free throw after he was fouled by Evan Fournier.

“He’s been a warrior for us all year,” Milwaukee coach Jim Boylan said. “He’s played hurt, sick, he’s done everything. … I can’t say enough about him, he’s had a great season. Without him I don’t know where we would be.”

After a timeout, Lawson got the ball in front of Milwaukee’s bench with Ellis guarding him. Lawson drove to his right and pulled up in the lane to hit the winning shot.

“I just wanted to (isolate),” Lawson said. “I passed to Wilson, got it back, saw a clean side, started pushing real hard and I knew he was trying to bite and make sure I didn’t get to the basket. So I kind of stepped back and had all the time in the world to knock down a shot.”

J.J. Redick, who contributed 20 points for the Bucks, missed a 3-pointer from the center of the arc as time expired.

Milwaukee, which already had clinched the No. 8 spot in the East, finished with a 21-20 record at home.

“We were one defensive stop short,” Ellis said. “J.J. had a great look at it.”

Forward Kenneth Faried did not play because of the left ankle he sprained in Denver’s victory over Portland on Sunday.

That didn’t stop the Nuggets (56-25), who added to their franchise record for victories in a season by winning for the 22nd time in their last 25 games.

JaVale McGee came off the bench and finished with a season-high 17 rebounds and 10 points for Denver, which closes the regular season Wednesday when it hosts Phoenix.

Milwaukee is closing the regular season with no momentum at all. The team has just three victories in its last 15 games and will try to halt a nine-game road losing streak Wednesday at Oklahoma City.

“It’d be nice for us to taste a victory,” Boylan said.

John Henson had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Bucks, who lost their fifth straight game to Denver.

Milwaukee held a one-point lead with about 1 minute left when Ersan Ilyasova grabbed a rebound off a missed shot by Andre Miller, but he lost the ball out of bounds.

Denver capitalized with a basket by Andre Iguodala for a 108-107 lead with 52 seconds remaining.

Mike Dunleavy missed a shot and Miller’s two free throws gave the Nuggets a 110-107 lead with 25.4 seconds left.

Earlier in the quarter, Denver held a 98-92 lead when Ellis scored eight points in a row. He drilled a 3-pointer, a jump shot and then another 3-pointer to give Milwaukee a 100-98 lead with 4:30 to go.

A slam dunk along the baseline by Ekpe Udoh with 9:20 left gave Milwaukee an 87-86 lead, its first since early in the first quarter.

Game notes

Milwaukee gave up a season-high 46 free-throw attempts; Denver made 32 of them. … Ellis recorded his ninth 30-point game of the season. … The Nuggets finished with a 19-22 mark on the road. … An MRI exam Monday morning showed that Faried sprained a ligament. Faried, who averages 11.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, also will miss the final game of the regular season and will be listed as day-to-day for the playoffs. … Center Larry Sanders missed his third game in a row for the Bucks with a sore lower back.

The post Nuggets edge Bucks on Ty Lawson’s late shot appeared first on IdealCapper.

Charlotte At Boston
When: 7:30 PM ET, Saturday, March 16, 2013
Where: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, SportSouth (Charlotte), Comcast SportsNet New England (Boston)
PREDICTION: Celtics 98, Bobcats 81

Oddsmakers currently have the Celtics listed as 14-point favorites versus the Bobcats, while the game’s total is sitting at 190.

Charlotte looked like something much better than the team with the worst record in the NBA on Tuesday, getting a career-high 35 points from Gerald Henderson and a double-double from Josh McRoberts while holding Boston to 28 second-half points in the easy win. Whatever was working in that game went away at the start of a two-game trip on Friday. The Bobcats were outscored 23-10 in the fourth quarter and shot 32.5 percent in the 92-78 loss at Toronto. The bright spots were again Henderson (22 points) and McRoberts (10 and nine rebounds), two players who are getting long looks in the final weeks of the regular season as the team evaluates the roster.

In their last action, Charlotte was a 92-78 loser on the road against the Raptors. They failed to cover the 12.5-point spread as underdogs, while the combined score (170) was profitable news for UNDER bettors.

Charlotte:
Team record: 14-51 SU, 21-44 ATS

The total has gone UNDER in 4 of last 5 games when playing Boston
The total has gone UNDER in 11 of last 14 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 16 of last 22 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of last 6 games when playing on the road against Boston

When playing on Saturday are 3-7
Before playing Washington are 2-8
After playing Toronto are 3-7
After a loss are 1-9

Boston is 23-9 at home, 12-20 on the road and would love to jump up into the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference to get at least one round of home-court advantage in the playoffs. The Celtics are sitting in seventh place, 2 1/2 games shy of No. 4 Brooklyn and 3 1/2 behind the third-place New York Knicks. Pierce scored 19 points and Rajon Rondo recorded a triple-double to lead the way in a 100-89 home win over the Bobcats on Jan. 14. Boston was finishing up a stretch of 10 road games in 13 contests on Tuesday and looked weary from all the travel. Pierce got the night off to rest and Kevin Garnett played just over 20 minutes. The Celtics showed more life on Wednesday, getting 20 points from Jeff Green and 15 from Pierce in the 112-88 victory.

Last time out for Boston, they were a 112-88 winner as they battled the Raptors at home. The Celtics covered in the match as a 5-point favorite, while 200 combined points moved the game OVER for totals bettors.

Boston:
Team record: 35-29 SU, 30-31-3 ATS

is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games when playing at home against Charlotte
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of last 5 games when playing Charlotte
is 6-2 SU in its last 8 games

When playing on Saturday are 6-4
Before playing Miami are 5-5
After playing Toronto are 7-3
After a win are 6-4

The post Charlotte Bobcats vs. Boston Celtics Free Betting Pick & Matchup appeared first on IdealCapper.