Can the Utah Jazz keep the wins coming? They’ve got a rather easy matchup at home against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday as they look to further cement their standing in the Western Conference rankings. Utah’s recent string of wins have come primarily at home where the Jazz will host a Lakers’ team with just five road wins all season long.
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Odds Analysis
The Jazz lost at home to the Thunder on Monday night, falling 97-95 despite a pretty solid defensive performance against a strong offensive club.
The loss snapped a six game winning streak for Utah who had rebounded nicely after a tough road trip. Interestingly, the offense has been the difference as they scored at least 100 in all six of those games and at least 106 in five in a row before the step back on Monday.
Despite the wins SU, the Jazz have been in a continuous funk ATS. They were favored in all but one of those six games—the one against Cleveland—and failed to deliver a win by enough of a margin to cover more than three of those games. Overall, the Jazz are 1-4 ATS in their last five games now and are just 5-13 ATS in their last 18 games.
Even with the latest struggles, they’re still over .500 ATS at home. On the flip side, the Lakers are 9-15 ATS on the road and have been struggling ATS overall.
Los Angeles dropped a game on the road against Dallas on Sunday by a staggering 49-points, losing 122-73. The loss was the team’s sixth in their last seven games both SU and ATS.
Player to Watch
In Los Angeles, there aren’t too many players to watch. Of course, the youngsters are interesting to see how they develop for the future. Still, the key player in this matchup is on the Jazz.
Keep an eye on George Hill. He vastly underperformed in the loss to the Thunder on Monday, but has been generally very strong overall in the team’s winning streak and has looked sharp since coming back from his concussion.
The guard had a 30-point game prior to the downturn against Oklahoma City and is the team’s biggest threat on the outside.
When Hill is on top of his game, he’s a sharp shooter with a 50.4-percent field goal percentage and 44.9-percent mark from beyond the arc. Those are very strong numbers and have led to 18.4 PPG, the second highest mark on the team behind the ever steady Gordon Hayward.
All in all, the Jazz are clearly better—and a much better bet—with Hill on the court. They’re 1-6 ATS in their last seven without him. If he’s playing and playing up to his potential, this could be a long night for the Lakers.
Last Meeting
The Lakers previously hosted the Jazz a month ago and Utah escaped with the win, but the game ended much closer than the odds makers expected as Los Angeles covered the spread by three and a half points in a narrow 102-100 loss.
Ultimately, a huge fourth quarter gave Utah the win as they scored 30-points against a tired Lakers’ defense.
The Jazz shot 50.7-percent from the floor against the dismal Los Angeles defense and Gordon Hayward dominated, shooting 10-for-17 for 31 points with Rudy Gobert winning the battle of the big men, posting a double-double with 11 rebounds and 12 points.
On the other side, Nick Young and D’Angelo Russell started on the outside and did very little, but Louis Williams scored 22 off the bench while Julius Randal was the star for the purple and gold. He shot 9-for-12 with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
This will be the fourth meeting of these two teams and the Jazz took the first two games as well, beating Los Angeles 107-101 a month prior and 96-86 when they were playing better at the very start of the year.
Given that, the Jazz will be looking for the season sweep and are certainly in position to accomplish that.
Free NBA ATS Picks
The Lakers got no more than nine points from any starter in their last game and now have to deal without D’Angelo Russell who, although inconsistent, is still the team’s second highest scorer.
Players like Louis Williams, Jordan Clarkson and Nick Young lead the way for this team in scoring and that’s much more of an indictment on the talent and experience of this team than it is on the quality of those role players.
In the end, look for the Jazz to shut down the Lakers’ offense much like Dallas did on Sunday. The Jazz, after all are ranked first in PPG allowed compared to the Mavs who rank fourth. On the flip side, Utah isn’t a powerhouse offense, but they’re better than Dallas and have been shooting pretty well.
NBA Odds: Jazz 107, Lakers 91
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