Utah Jazz at L.A. Lakers Betting Odds


Opening Betting Lines: Jazz +7 / Lakers -7 O/U 203.5

Time: 3:30 PM EST Sunday May 2, 2010 on ABC

In tonight's opening round game of a Western Conference semifinal series the defending champion L.A. Lakers host the Utah Jazz. In their opening round series' The Lakers dispatched the pesky Oklahoma City Thunder in 6 games while the Jazz scored a minor upset over the higher seed Denver Nuggets also in 6 games.

This is the 3rd straight post-season and the Jazz have faced the Lakers and they hope the 3rd time is the charm after being eliminated from the playoffs in the last 2 seasons. These teams have met in the post season 5 times since 1998 and the winner always made it to the finals.

In their Game 6 wins in their last games the Lakers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 95-94 on Friday night and the Jazz beat the Denver Nuggets 112-104 also on Friday.

The Lakers won 3 of 4 games against the Jazz this season.

The Jazz are banged up as defensive ace Andrei Kirilenko is likely out for the first couple games of the series and they already lost C Mehmet Okur for the season with an Achilles tear in the Denver series. The Lakers also got some bad news, as C Andrew Bynum re-injuring his knee in Game 6 of the Oklahoma City series. If he can't go tonight Lamar Odom will start in his place and the Jazz would love not to face the 7-foot duo of Pau Gasol and Bynum.

The Jazz and Lakers have, pretty much, the same team as last year when the Lakers had no problem beating the Jazz en-route to winning the title.

Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams will have to play a good inside-outside game for the Jazz to pull off the upset today.

The Lakers have much more height and size on the interior, especially if Bynum plays, as the Jazz, mainly Boozer, have to hit the boards and not allow the Lakers to dominate the glass.

Kobe Bryant scored 32 points in Game 6 against the Thunder and averaged just over 23 ppg for the series. He will score tonight, but the Jazz will have to keep the other Lakers from blowing up on the offensive end of the court.

In the last couple games of the Oklahoma City series Bryant guarded, and shut down, ultra quick PG Russell Westbrook and if Deron Williams gets off to a fast start Kobe may be called on to shut him down on D.

Betting Trends

Utah is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games as a road underdog, 2-6 ATS in their last 8 road games against teams with a home winning percentage of greater than 60%, and has an Over record of 5-1 in their last 6 games.

L.A. is 4-10-1 ATS in their last 15 home games, 1-10 ATS in their last 11 games following an ATS win, and has an Under record of 7-2 in their last 9 home games.

In the last 7 games between these 2 teams the total has gone Under every time.

Our Selection : Take the Jazz at +7 at 5Dimes.


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NBA Handicapping

Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat Odds 6-12
The Mavs are up 3-2 in this series heading to South Beach and for the Heat to force Game 7 they will have to play better in the 4th quarter, especially LeBron James. 5Dimes has the hometown Heat as 5-point favorites in Game 6 with a total of 187.

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