Jazz vs. Lakers Gambling Preview From Sportsbook.com

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

NBA: Jazz seek a new tune

The Utah Jazz struggled on the road all season, going 19-26 both straight-up and against the spread.

The Jazz will try to summons their inner road-warrior Wednesday night when they visit the Los Angeles Lakers. Tip-off is at 10:30 pm ET and the game will be aired on TNT. The Lakers are currently 6 ½-point favorites and an enormous 90% of the early bettors are backing them.

If Game 1 of this series is any indication, Utah has their work cut out for them. Kobe Bryant scored 38 points and L.A. came away with a 109-98 victory. This was a six-point game with under two minutes remaining, but the Lakers were able to stretch the margin at the end, covering the eight-point spread.

Bryant’s tally included a 21-23 night from the line. That’s an enormous amount of free throws for one player but Utah coach, Jerry Sloan, knows that most of it can be blamed on his team’s poor defense.

"They called them, Bryant shot them, that's fine," Sloan said. "I can't do anything about that."
"Our defense was very, very poor at best. Fouls are what you do when you try and bail out. I'd say that's very poor defense."

Sloan may be the most hard-nosed coach in the NBA, and he’ll get a good defensive effort out his team on Wednesday. The question is how do you turn up the defensive pressure yet avoid fouling the league’s best player in Bryant? That’s akin to walking a tightrope.

If you’re a Jazz’ backer though, there are some reasons to feel positive about this game. One is that they only shot 38% from the field in Game 1 including a woeful 4-19 from three-point land. It’s doubtful that Utah will shoot that poorly again.

Another reason is that Utah out-rebounded L.A. 58-41. The Jazz have a physical mismatch up front and that will start to play dividends if they continue to crash the boards with abandon.

Finally, there’s a good chance that power forward Carlos Boozer will break out of his playoff slump and play like the All-Star he is. Boozer is averaging 16 points on 43% field goal shooting in seven playoff games, compared to 21 PPG and 54.7% in the regular season. Boozer is the key player in this series for Utah, even more than point guard Deron Williams.

If Utah can pull off the upset in Game 2, they’ll be in good shape in this series. Utah would return home to an arena where they are 39-5 this year, best in the NBA. They are also 30-14 ATS at home. And with a current series price of Utah +500, they will be attracting a lot of betting attention.

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