Jazz vs. Lakers Cappers Sunday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Jazz vs. Lakers NBA Handicapping

Pau Gasol may or may not play in this one, depending on whether the tendinitis in his ailing knees is acting up.

Utah Jazz (11-10) at Los Angeles Lakers (9-11)
Sunday Dec. 9
Staples Center, Los Angeles
9:30 p.m. EST
Spread: Lakers -6.5 Bovada.lv
O/U: 206

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And wouldn’t you love to be a fly on Kobe Bryant’s wall if the big Spaniard is unable to answer the bell against the Jazz?

Things are upside down these days in the Land of Lakers. Mike Brown has long since hit the highway, but things still haven’t turned around until new boss Mike D’Antoni. The Big Four (Bryant, Nash, Howard and Gasol) is in shambles. Whatever can go wrong has gone wrong.

Dwight Howard was supposed to make the race for the NBA title a three-way scrum among the Heat, Thunder and Lakers, but LA is under water at 9-11 and behind both the Clippers and Warriors in a bizarre early season in the Western Conference. Howard says it’s time for Laker fans to chill out.

“It’s 82 games,” Howard said after a loss to OKC on Friday night. “This team has just gotten together. It’s not like we’re going to get together and start winning right away. We’re learning how to play together. We’re getting better. This is not on anybody’s timetable but ours.” [ad-6571516]

That is hardly music to the ears of Bryant, who wants to win yesterday and today as well as tomorrow.

There is a certain symmetry to this game. The last time the teams hooked up, in early November, the Jazz won it, and shortly after that game the Lakers pulled the plug on Brown. Since that game the Lakers are 8-7, which doesn’t get too many hearts beating on Hollywood Boulevard.

The Jazz, meanwhile, are plugging along at 11-10, on the good side of .500 after a 32-point whomping of the Raptors – a win that was logged without injured Al Jefferson. Jefferson might not go tonight, either, in which case the unknown Enes Kanter (18 points, 8 rebounds against Toronto) gets to make a name for himself against Howard.

The pick: The Jazz seem to shrivel up at Staples Center, where they are 5-20 against the Lakers. LA’s problems at the point (Nash and Blake are both out) won’t be exploited by the Jazz. Lakers to cover 6.5.