Sports bettors may not have noticed, with all the attention focused on the Miami Heat over the last month, but the Denver Nuggets have been tearing up the Western Conference. The team went on a 15-game winning streak of its own that very few people seemed to notice, and they are now sitting firmly with the third-best record in the West. The Nuggets have a league-leading 25-11 ATS record at home and an absurd 33-3 SU record while playing inside the Pepsi Center. And the beauty of the situation is that the Nuggets are still under the radar. Oddmakers and sports bettors are not likely to jump on the bandwagon anytime soon — the Nuggets are a small-market team without any superstar players on its roster.

The Denver Nuggets may be the perfect team for bettors to begin wagering on once the playoffs start, and they could provide excellent value throughout the rest of the season. However, if you are still not sold on the Nuggets as a viable betting option, here are three reasons to wager on Denver during the postseason.

1) Home-Court Advantage - having home-court does not necessarily mean as much in the NBA as it does in other sports. In the NFL the weather conditions have a lot to do with how a team performs in certain arenas. In baseball, the changing dimensions of the field drastically affect a team’s home advantage. However, in the NBA, a basketball court is the same in every arena in the league. Many times, home-court advantage simply means a home-crowd advantage. The arena itself, has very little to do with how a team performs on the court, unless you play in Denver.

The Nuggets may be the only team in the league with a decided home-court advantage based on the elements, which in Denver is the elevation. The Nuggets are a team that was built to play in high-altitude. They play at the second-fastest pace in the league, and other teams simply cannot keep up with them inside the Pepsi Center.

2) Role Players - the Nuggets are a team built entirely from a group of role players and position specialists. The closest thing they have to a superstar is Andre Iguodala, and even then he is only averaging 10 shots a game. The reason the Nuggets have been playing so well is because they were built to be a team. There is not one player on the court that takes up too much of an offense or defensive load. That approach may not win the Nuggets a championship. However, it allows them to stay competitive and cover a lot of spreads. The Nuggets have the second-best ATS record in the NBA, and that momentum should carry over into the postseason for at least a few playoff series.

3) Conference Record - Denver currently has the best ATS record in the league for games played within its own conference. The team has been covering 71 percent of their conference games and winning by an average of 4.9 points per game. The Nuggets may not be the best team in the West, but they do match up very well against any organization they may have to face throughout the playoffs. Denver is a fearless team that has been playing with the confidence that is usually reserved for championship-level teams.

Read more articles by George Monroy