NBA · Final · Playoffs round 1, game 3 · DEN leads 2–0updated 17:25 UTC

Denver Nuggets vs Los Angeles Lakers

at Los Angeles Lakers

LAL expected to win by about 1.5 · both teams together expected to score about 217.5 points · odds to win: DEN 2.03, LAL 1.88

Game odds from Pinnacle (the bookmaker we use as the reference), Fri 01:55 UTC

DEN 112 – LAL 105

Final

We had no picks in this game; every posted line is still scored below.

Getting a better price than most bookmakers offer is the only thing that made money in our past tests, measured on WNBA bets; NBA has not been measured yet. Player rates are context, not tips.

Explore every player and prop

How to read this page

A pick is a player line, for example Under 13.5 points, that we published before the game together with the price we found for it. We do not take bets.
Odds are shown in the decimal format: 1.93 means you get back 1.93 for every 1 staked, so a higher number pays more. The American format (−108 means risk 108 to win 100; +111 means risk 100 to win 111) appears only in the Data log at the bottom of the page.
'Posted at' is the price we found when we published the pick; 'better' is a higher price for the same line at another bookmaker. Taking the better price is the one thing on this page that made money over many past bets; that was measured on WNBA bets, and NBA has not been measured yet.
'Market puts Under at 48.5%' is the chance implied by all bookmakers' prices together, with their built-in margin removed. Pinnacle is a bookmaker whose prices are widely treated as the most accurate reference, so it is the one we compare against.
A player's rate is how often that player has gone over the line in every game we hold since the 2019-20 season (not only this season), for example over in 41 of 78 games (52.6%), with a likely range such as 32–52%: fewer games means a wider range, and under 10 games we show no rate word at all.
'Past record stronger than the price' means the whole likely range sits above the chance the bookmakers' price implies; 'weaker' means below; 'agrees with the price' means the price sits inside the range, which is the usual case. None of these is a tip.
'Not measurable' is the usual honest answer: too few games to tell a real difference from chance.
'What could go wrong' lists the facts that can change a line: who is out, whether the starting lineup is confirmed, expected playing time (RotoWire's estimate), rest, and how many bookmakers price each line.
After the final, every pick is checked against the official stats and compared with the last price before the game started, the market's most informed price; getting a better price than that is the fairest test of a pick, whether or not it won. A tie means the player landed exactly on the line and the stake is returned; lines ending in .5 cannot tie.
Results are given for every 1 staked: 'would have returned +0.93' means a stake of 1 would have come back with 0.93 in profit. We do not stake anything; the record is what a stake of 1 on each pick would have done. Our record counts a smaller stake when the price advantage was small.
S beside a name marks an expected starter. Times are shown in your device's time zone; our data is recorded in US Eastern Time (ET). Team codes are the league's three-letter abbreviations.
'Your prediction' lets you pick Over or Under on any line before the game starts; we check your predictions the same way and keep your record, and one game of results proves nothing.
Team codes on this page: DEN = Denver Nuggets, LAL = Los Angeles Lakers.

Picks and prices

Odds of at least 1.70 only · highest odds first · results checked

A line is the number a bookmaker sets, e.g. 13.5 points; Over means more than it, Under fewer. Odds 1.93 pay 1.93 for every 1 staked. 'Posted at' is the price we found when we published the pick; after the game it is compared with the last price before the start.

We had no picks in this game.

Why the better price matters

A higher price for the same line pays more whenever the pick wins; that is arithmetic, not a forecast.

What taking the best price is worth has been measured only on WNBA lines (25 Aug 2026); NBA has not been measured yet.

The players

5 players checked · 2 whose past record points the other way from the bookmakers' price · 0 out · 0 with too few games

Rate: the share of every game we hold for the player since the 2019-20 season (not only this season) in which the player finished above tonight's line. S beside a name marks an expected starter.

Against this opponent, 1 of 5 players has performed clearly differently and 3 show a slight hint · No starting lineup yet; showing every player with a line · playoff series: too few games to measure a difference

Context only A player's rate describes the past; it is not a tip and has not been tested as one. Expected minutes come from RotoWire, a lineup news service.

Sign in to see each player's rate The numbers below (for example 15.5 points) are the lines the bookmakers actually posted.

Denver Nuggetsplaying LAL

Aaron Gordon · minutes unknown

assists 4.5 → 3 actual

Christian Braun · minutes unknown

rebounds 2.5 → 2 actual

Jamal Murray · minutes unknown

assists 6.5 → 9 actual

Nikola Jokić · minutes unknown

3-pointers 1.5 → 0 actual

Los Angeles Lakersplaying DEN

Austin Reaves · minutes unknown

rebounds 3.5 → 5 actual

What could go wrong

updated 17:25 UTC

Who is out

Injury report not checked yet: none has reached us for this game, so an empty list here does not mean everyone plays.

Lineup changes unavailable right now.

Lineups

Expected starting lineup, not yet confirmed

Playing time

No playing-time estimates yet.

Rest

Both teams had at least two days between their last game and this one.

Bookmakers

The reference bookmaker, Pinnacle, offers 0 of the 238 lines; the rest rely on other bookmakers.

Every pick is priced by at least 2 bookmakers.

When a player is out, that player's lines are removed: in our past results this helped. Guessing which teammates benefit was also tested and lost money, so nothing else on this page is adjusted for it.

What happened

In 0 of 2 cases where a player's past record disagreed with the bookmakers' price, the past record was right in this game. One game proves nothing.

FinalWe had no picks in this game · every posted line is still scored below

5 other players with a posted line

Nikola Jokić · 3-pointers 1.5 → 0 · 1.5 below the line · played 39 min · no final price

Austin Reaves · rebounds 3.5 → 5 · 1.5 above the line · played 40.8 min · no final price

Jamal Murray · assists 6.5 → 9 · 2.5 above the line · played 40.6 min · no final price

Aaron Gordon · assists 4.5 → 3 · 1.5 below the line · played 41.2 min · no final price

Christian Braun · rebounds 2.5 → 2 · 0.5 below the line · played 17.3 min · no final price

Each prediction is recorded as if you had staked 1 at the line you saw, and your record is shown here. One game tells you nothing yet.

More context

Head to head

LAL vs DEN · last 37 games · DEN leads · LAL record 16–21 · average score 112.5–114.5 · LAL has lost by 2.1 on average

Team results are background only; they say nothing about any single player's line.

14 Mar · DEN 125 at LAL 127LAL won

5 Mar · LAL 113 at DEN 120LAL lost

What each defense gives up per game

Team defense unavailable right now.

Defense by position

How much this is worth

Defense-by-position numbers are mostly random from season to season; shown for context only. We tested it: a team's defense-by-position numbers from one half of the season do not predict the other half, so treat them as noise.

Defense by position unavailable right now.

How the game odds moved

Pinnacle first had LAL expected to win by 1.5, expected total 217.5 (Fri 01:55 UTC) and had not changed it by Fri 01:55 UTC.

The odds at the top of the page are the latest we have, from every bookmaker on file; this is one bookmaker's own history.

Data log (technical)

Technical detail for auditing; the plain version is above. Internal ids and formula names print here only.

Line-shopping measurement: project_conditional_minutes_refuted

Our picks, raw · 0

No raw pick rows for this game.

Checked results, raw (basketball-stats shorthand) · 0

No graded rows for this game.

Data fetches · 48

grading picks/nightlyok 200 · 22 ms

sds history (h2h)ok · 23 ms

sds schedule/team (meetings)ok · 24 ms

sds games/{id}ok 200 · 98 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-19)ok 200 · 99 ms

sds rest/team (home)ok 200 · 100 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-22)ok 200 · 100 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-15)ok 200 · 101 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-24)ok 200 · 102 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-13)ok 200 · 102 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-18)ok 200 · 103 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-16)ok 200 · 104 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-17)ok 200 · 104 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-21)ok 200 · 105 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-12)ok 200 · 106 ms

sds lineups/{id}ok 200 · 106 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-14)ok 200 · 107 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-23)ok 200 · 108 ms

sds analytics opponent_defense (away)failed 400 · 110 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-11)ok 200 · 113 ms

sds rest/team (away)ok 200 · 114 ms

sds analytics opponent_defense (home)failed 400 · 114 ms

sds defense/team (home)failed 500 · 114 ms

grading clv/picksok 200 · 93 ms

sds games/{id}/boxscoreok 200 · 116 ms

sds players/team (away)ok 200 · 11 ms

sds players/team (home)ok 200 · 12 ms

sds injuries/game/{id}ok 200 · 130 ms

sds defense/team (away)failed 500 · 129 ms

sds games/date (2024-04-20)ok 200 · 141 ms

dh lineups/{id}/deltafailed 404 · 361 ms

odds game timelineok 200 · 712 ms

grading verdict/boardok 200 · 4666 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (assists)ok 200 · 27 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (rebounds)ok 200 · 114 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (assists)ok 200 · 128 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 132 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (rebounds)ok 200 · 137 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 138 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 140 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 141 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (three_pointers_made)ok 200 · 163 ms

odds player timeline (rebounds)ok 200 · 602 ms

odds player timeline (assists)ok 200 · 601 ms

odds player timeline (rebounds)ok 200 · 645 ms

odds player timeline (threes)ok 200 · 660 ms

odds player timeline (assists)ok 200 · 1893 ms

Classic view →

The older, longer version of this page is still available as the classic view. Nothing there is tracked in our results; this page is.