L.A. Lakers at Utah Jazz Betting Odds


Opening Line: Lakers +5 / Jazz -5 O/U 202.5

Time: 9 PM EST Wednesday February 10, 2010

Tonight the streaking Utah Jazz host the defending champion L.A. Lakers. The Jazz are the hottest team in the Western Conference winning 9 straight games and if it were not for Cleveland they would be the hottest team in the league. The Lakers are 7-3 in their last 10 games and have won 2 in a row and their last won they beat a solid San Antonio squad without Kobe Bryant.

With Utah's current winning streak they now only trail the Denver Nuggets by 2 games in the Northwest Division and they currently hold the 3rd position in the Western Conference. The Lakers still have a comfortable 8.5 game lead over the Phoenix Suns in the Pacific Division.

This season the Jazz are 22-6 at home and 30-17-2 ATS and the Lakers are 15-9 on the road and 24-28-1 ATS.

In their last games the Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs 101-89 on Monday night and the Jazz beat the L.A. Clippers 106-99 last night.

Kobe (28 ppg) is not the only Lakers hurting, as Andrew Bynum (15.1 ppg 8.2 rpg) will probably miss his 2nd straight game with a hip injury. Kobe will be a game time decision tonight.

It is not good that the Lakers may be missing their superstar and their budding superstar center, but they are not without weapons, as Pau Gasol (17.1 ppg 11 rpg) and Lamar Odom (9.8 ppg 9.9 rpg), who has 32 boards in his last 2 games, have stepped up their play. If Kobe can't go these guys will be counted on for more offense.

The Jazz won their last game against the Lakers and L.A. struggled on defense allowing the Jazz to shoot just over 51% from the floor. The Lakers will have to play a solid defensive game with Kobe out if they are going to snap Utah's winning streak.

Gasol will have to put a body on Carlos Boozer (19.6 10.8 rpg) and not let him get easy buckets inside or dominate the boards.

Deron Williams (18.8 ppg 9.8 assists per game) has played great in Utah's streak and the Lakers' backcourt can't let him have a huge game.

Utah was killed by the Lakers in last season's playoffs and if they lose this game it may really hurt their confidence, knowing they can't even beat L.A. without their star player.

L.A. is 4-1-1 ATS in their last 6 road games, 2-7-1 ATS in their last 10 road games against teams with a winning home record, and has an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 road games.

Utah is 15-4-2 ATS in their last 21 home games, 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 home games against teams with a road winning percentage of greater than 60%, and has an Over record of 8-3 in their last 11 games.

In this match up the favorite is 7-3 ATS in the last 10 games and in the last 5 games between these 2 teams the total has gone Under.

Our Selection : The Lakers will be without Kobe for the 3rd straight game tonight. The team came up big in the first two winning in Portland and at home on Monday versus the Spurs. We think that LA will run out of gas in this game facing the Jazz who have won 9 straight and have been shooting the lights out in their last 5 (51.8%). The home team is 9-1 SU up L10 and 17-7-1 ATS in the last 25 in this series. Take the Jazz -5.5


Future Betting Odds

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.

NBA Toolbox

Sportsbooks