posted March 3, 2008 at 16:02 in NBA Betting Trends

The Mavericks almost pulled off the upset today versus the Los Angeles Lakers. No sleep for the weary, right? The Mavs have to get on a plane and take the trip to Utah to take on a Jazz team that has been pretty good against the BetUS spread at home. The Jazz are 18 and 10 against the BetUS spread so far this season. That’s much better then what the Mavericks are on the road. Dallas is 13 and 18 against the spread on the road so far this season.

The key in this game is going to come down to the play of future hall-of-fame Dallas point-guard Jason Kidd, and soon to be superstar Utah point-guard Deron Williams. Before I get into that match-up, though, here are some trends:

The Dallas Mavericks are 4-1-1 against the spread in their last six games versus a team from the NBA Northwest Division.

The Utah Jazz are 5 and 0 against the spread in their last 5 games on a Monday night.

The Utah Jazz are 6 and 1 against the spread in their last 7 games versus a team from the NBA Southwest Division.

The Dallas Mavericks are 0-4-1 against the spread in the last 5 meetings between these two teams in Utah.

It’s obvious that the Utah Jazz are tough to beat at home. It will be even tougher for the Mavericks after playing an overtime game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday. That, of course, brings me to the main match-up in this game.

Jason Kidd is not the type of player that could easily come back from an overtime game. He’s old. I know this because while I was a sophomore in college, he was playing for the Cal Golden Bears. Yeah, that old. In any case he faces one of the top five point-guards in the league in Deron Williams. Kidd will have a tough time keeping up with the younger, better shooting, Williams. That means that the Mavs will have to lean on Nowitzki and Terry to produce points.

On defense the Mavs will have to try and shut-down both Okhur and Boozer. Okay, so Dampier takes care of Okhur, Nowitzki has no chance of guarding Carlos Boozer on the blocks. Tired, old, unable to play an inside game - - I have no idea how the Mavs think they are going to get back to the Finals with Jason Kidd.

In any case, this is an easy one for me. Utah is the younger, tougher, better team. They’re also at home where they are money.

The BetUS NBA Betting line is Utah Jazz – 6.5 against the spread at home versus the Dallas Mavericks.

The lone Western Conference match-up of the night is an easy winner in my eyes. I’m all over Utah in this game.

You’ll find the latest 2007-2008 NBA odds and lines in the best online sportsbook, BetUS.com. Betting on NBA player and game props makes every aspect of the game exciting. Join BetUS.com today to bet on the NBA and make online sports betting work for you!