Posted on 12/11/2007 2:42:10 PM

Title: Basketball Betting - Trailblazers (+13.5) vs. Jazz (-13.5)

By D.S. Williamson

The Utah Jazz are coming off of three straight losses and that cannot make Hall-of-Fame coach Jerry Sloan happy. I’m a Sloan fan. He’s definitely in my Top-10 “man-crushes” of all time. The man is a winner and the fact that his team has lost three in a row must be eating his insides.

The Trailblazers are coming off of three wins in a row. They’ve beaten Milwaukee and Miami the past two games, but now must travel to a city where they hardly play well. It has nothing to do with talent, it seems, just the fact that Utah is a tough place for the Blazers either to win straight-up or against the spread:

The Portland Trailblazers are 3 and 9 against the spread in their last 12 games in Utah.

The FAVORITE is 9 and 4 against the spread in the last 13 meetings between these two teams.

Considering the fact that the Blazers were probably the underdog in almost every one of those 13 meetings, things do not look good for them tonight. Like I wrote earlier, the Jazz will be out to destroy the Blazers after three straight losses and I’m thinking that they probably will.

The inside stats aren’t in the Blazers’ favor either. The Jazz average over 107 points per game while the Blazers average a mere 93. While the Jazz give up only 100 points a game, a terrific 7 point average, the Blazers give up 98. The Jazz average over 9 steals a game. The Blazers give up 7 turnovers a game.

Every way I look at this one, it comes up Jazzy.

After three straight loses expect the Jazz to come out firing early in this one. They will put too much pressure on the young Blazers, build up a twenty-point lead, and then cost to a fairly easy win for “man-crush” candidate of the year, Jerry Sloan.

The BetUS basketball betting line is Utah Jazz – 13.5 against the spread at home versus the Portland Trailblazers.

I can’t see the Blazers getting closer than sixteen points in this one. The Jazz have way too much upfront to let the Blazers get any closer than that.

It’s always iffy giving up that many points in an NBA game, but I have to believe that the Jazz are good enough to cover.

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