NBA Betting – Atlanta Hawks vs Utah Jazz Preview & Pick
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NBA Betting – Hawks vs Jazz Preview & Pick
Date: Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Venue: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, UT
Broadcast: SS, FSUT
Atlanta Hawks vs Utah Jazz Betting Lines from Betus.com
Money Line: Hawks +220, Jazz -260
Spread: Jazz -6
Over/Under: 190
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Atlanta Hawks (23-14)
It’s been an up-and-down year for the Atlanta Hawks but there have been far more ups than downs. They started the year hot but stumbled when top scorer Joe Johnson went down with an elbow injury. Since his return, however, the Hawks have found their groove again.
The Hawks have won six of eight entering tonight’s visit to Utah, which will be the sixth of their last seven games played on their road. They’ve treated bettors well lately, too, going 6-2 against the spread over their last eight. For the most part, distributed scoring has helped the Hawks this season; in Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Josh Smith, Jamal Crawford, Marvin Williams and Mike Bibby, they have six players averaging double figures in scoring this season.
Better yet for Atlanta, Johnson is heating up. His 18 points per game is a step down after five straight seasons averaging 20-plus points but he may get back to his typical numbers soon enough; he has back-to-back 29-point efforts. 
Utah Jazz (24-11)
In a season full of massive winning and losing streaks, the Utah Jazz have been the rare model of consistency. They had one seven-game winning streak but, for the most part, have done their business stringing together wins in chunks of three or four. They’ve lost consecutive games just once all season.
We know what we get with the Jazz: a solid, second-tier contender with a steady starting five. Deron Williams is the quarterback, leading the team with 22.2 points and 9.3 assists per game. But Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson have done a fine job giving him targets for his passes and taking turns exploding for big games.
The Jazz aren’t particularly strong or weak in any one area. They’re 12th in scoring, ninth in shooting, 10th in defense and eighth in opposing shooting.
The pick:
From a betting perspective, we have a conundrum here. The Hawks have to be getting tired at this point with all their road games of late and in theory could be walking into a buzz saw at EnergySolutions Arena. So it’s not the game itself that concerns me about Utah. It’s the spread. Can the Jazz cover six points? They’ve failed to beat five of their last six spreads.
I like the Jazz to win but the Hawks are a solid defensive team and I think they can stay closer than six points tonight.
Hawks vs Jazz prediction: Jazz 98, Hawks 94
Money Line: Jazz -260
Spread: Hawks +6
Over/Under: OVER 190
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