Clippers vs Jazz NBA Handicapping
What you’ve seen of the Utah Jazz this season is pretty much what you’re going to get. They are basically a .500 team that can hang with good teams, especially at home, and steal a game they shouldn’t every now and then.
Los Angeles Clippers (23-6) at Utah Jazz (15-15)
Friday, Dec. 28
EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah
9 p.m., EST
Spread – Clippers -3
O/U – 192.5 at SportsBettingOnline.ag
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If they make the playoffs (no sure thing given the current strength of the Western Conference), they will certainly wind up as meat on a hook for the Thunder, Spurs . . . or perhaps the Clippers, who the Jazz face tonight in Salt Lake City.
LA comes in with 15 victories in a row, but the Jazz could be live home dogs tonight because they have a few things going their way:
***Los Angeles is coming off a big national-TV home victory Thursday night over the Celtics and for only the second time this season is playing the back end of a back-to-back set on the road.
***Utah ended an 8-day road stretch and has had a day to rest up after taking on Golden State at home on Wednesday night. (None of the Jazz played big minutes in that game.)
***In their only other meeting this season, also in Utah, the Jazz dominated for three periods before fading at the end. Utah actually had a 14-point lead late in the third period, and lost it only when the defense made some uncharacteristic mistakes in the final few minutes.[ad-6571516]
So the opportunity is there for the Jazz, who hope to catch the Clippers napping as LA continues to rack up victory after victory and enjoys its new-found status as top dog at Staples Center and No. 1 in many national power rankings.
The Clippers have been a solid (9-3) road team, with all three of the defeats (Oklahoma City, Brooklyn and Atlanta) coming in a four-day span in late November. The Clips expended a lot of energy in an OT loss to the Thunder, so the subsequent defeats to the Nets (ugh) and Hawks were understandable.
Assuming the Clippers get past the Jazz tonight and defeat Utah again (at home) on Sunday, they will be able to look back on a 17-0 December in which they elbowed their way to the top of the league and served notice that the playoffs will be more interesting that we all thought.
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Heavy (68 percent) early money is down on the Clippers at -3, and who can blame the public after that 106-77 victory over the befuddled Celtics on Thursday night? Blake Griffin and Chris Paul barely broke sweats (neither played 30 minutes) and they scored only 23 points between them.
But the Clips haven’t been pushed since an early-December game against the lowly Bobcats. If you like hunches, grab the points here and figure on another close game that goes to the wire.
