Have to throw a small play down on the first game of the season even though I don't have a hugely strong opinion on the side. Defending NBA champions are 9-1 in the past 10 years on title banner/ring night, and no team has a better home-court advantage than the Nuggets.

Denver swept the Lakers in the playoffs last season. Los Angeles added Gabe Vincent and Christian Wood this offseason. The Nuggets lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green and don’t really have a backup center when Nikola Jokic is taken out. Denver was 4-0 SU last season against the Lakers at home, but only 1-2-1 ATS. While Denver may have the better starting five, the Lakers strengthened their bench this season compete with the reigning champs on opening night.

A lot of Laker hype entering the season but we suspect last year's unexpected playoff run had more to do with an immature and distracted Memphis side and a worn-down Golden State before the Lake Show was swept out in the West finals. It was these Nuggets who did the dirty work, and don't think LA has any more of an answer for the Joker than it did last spring. Another team besides the Lakers as the opening foe might have made Denver a bit more vulnerable on raise-the-banner night, but these will be fully focused Nuggets tonight. Play Nuggets

I make the Lakers just +2 road underdogs on opening night in Denver. The time I'm most interested in backing the Lakers is when I know both LeBron James and Anthony Davis are 100% healthy and playing without limitations. The Lakers actually have nice depth that will come in handy at altitude against a Denver team that lost a meaningful piece of their depth in the off-season. Expect a big effort from the Lakers to start the season.

Tonight is championship ring night in Denver, and the Nuggets are favored over the Lakers. I’ll put the Lakers' depth up against anybody in the NBA. The Nuggets are going to miss Bruce Brown off the bench and will need to find someone to step up in his place. Too many points here. I’ll take the dog.

The Lakers have a little more size -- even though Jarred Vanderbilt is out for the opener -- to deal with Jokic, who could put up 25/10/10 and we still win this comfortably. I'm also not sure what kind of shape he's in as Jokic admittedly very much enjoyed his offseason. He didn't play more than 28 minutes in any preseason game.

In the 2023 West Finals against the Lakers, Murray averaged 3.8 made three-pointers on 9.3 attempts. Half unit.

The Lakers are a deep team. They Added Gabe Vincent from the Heat, which should help their perimeter shooting. D’Angelo Russell is technically their starting point guard, but with LeBron James also on the floor, he won’t have the ball in his hands as much as a traditional point guard would. Austin Reaves is also a good passer. The Lakers want Russell to shoot three’s, considering he shot 39.6% from behind the arc last season. Russell didn’t have more than five assists in any of the four games against the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. He had five or fewer assists in 11 of the Lakers’ 16 playoff games with LeBron and Reaves healthy. Give me the under here.

The Lakers put up the best fight of any team in the playoffs against the Nuggets last season. While they were swept, three of the losses came by six or fewer points. They enter this season with a deep team, bolstered by the addition of Gabe Vincent. The biggest plus for this matchup is that LeBron James and Anthony Davis are healthy. Meanwhile, it could be a bit of an adjustment period for the Nuggets. They lost two key bench players in Bruce Brown Jr. and Jeff Green and didn’t make any noteworthy moves to replace them. I think the Lakers can keep this close, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they win outright.