Utah Jazz at San Antonio Spurs Betting Preview

Opening Line: Jazz +6.5 / Spurs -6.5 O/U 194

Time: 9 PM EST Wednesday January 20, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in the Lone Star State the San Antonio Spurs host the Utah Jazz. The Spurs are coming off a win, are 6-4 in their last 10 games, and are in 2nd place in the Southwest Division 1.5 games behind the Dallas Mavericks. The Jazz are coming off a loss, are 5-5 in their last 10 games, and trail the Denver Nuggets by 3.5 games in the Northwest Division.

This season the Spurs are 17-6 at home and 21-18-1 ATS and the Jazz are 7-12 on the road and 24-16-1 ATS.

In their last games the Spurs beat the New Orleans Hornets 97-90 on Monday night and the Jazz lost to the Denver Nuggets 119-112 on Sunday.

The Spurs have already lost to the Jazz 3 times this season and tonight look to avoid being swept by Utah for the first time in 16 years.

In the last meeting of these teams in the beginning of December the Jazz won in Utah, but since then the Spurs have been on fire winning 16 of 22 games. The reason for their solid play has been their defense, which has only given up an average of 94 ppg during that span.

Speaking of defense the Jazz are struggling at that facet of the game as of late, but their offense has been solid averaging 110.0 ppg on 51.8% shooting, including 45.9 percent from 3-point land, in their last 5 games.

The Spurs have won 9 of their last 11 home games.

One key match up in this game is at PF with Carlos Boozer (19 ppg 10.6 rpg) vs. Tim Duncan (20 ppg 10.4 rpg). Both of these players have almost identical stats and each leads their team in both scoring and rebounding.

Another key match up is Spurs' PG Tony Parker (16.8 ppg) and Jazz PG Deron Williams (19.4 ppg). Parker has to play good defense against Williams, as he has hurt the Spurs this season averaging 21.7 ppg on 54% shooting in 3 games against them this season.

San Antonio has been a better team on the glass this season, as they have a rebounding differential of +3.8 rpg and the Jazz are at +0.3 rpg. Boozer and Mehmet Okur (6.7 rpg) have to hit the boards hard tonight for Utah.

Utah is 5-0-2 ATS in their last 7 games, 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 road games, and only 2-13-1 ATS in their last 16 games as a road underdog of 5.0-10.5. San Antonio is 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games against teams in the Northwest Division and 20-8-1 ATS in their last 29 games as a favorite of 5.0-10.5.


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