NBA Betting Free Picks: Utah @ Houston
Added on Apr 07, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
No Comments
Sportsbooks have a busy week ahead with baseball getting underway and the Masters golf tournament this weekend. Of course there’s still plenty of NHL and NBA betting opportunities and we’ll look at a Western Conference battle between the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets. The Jazz outlasted Oklahoma City in an epic OT battle last night to claim sole possession of 2nd place in the conference. They probably can’t run down the Lakers for first place (assuming LA doesn’t suffer a monumental collapse) but their schedule sets up well to hang on to the runner up spot. Houston is out of the playoffs and just playing out the string.
Utah Jazz at Houston Rockets
April 7, 5:05 PM Pacific
The kneejerk tendency would be to take the points with the home dog as Utah comes in off of an overtime in a back to back situation. We don’t see it that way. The big question here is ‘does Houston still care?’ because we know that the Jazz will come to play. Utah has three road games against non-playoff teams, followed by a home game with Phoenix remaining on their schedule. This is the most difficult one, with swooning New Orleans and lowly Golden State on deck. We look for the Jazz to get off to a good start as they look to sweep their remaining games.
Jazz have been a great pointspread team overall this year (47-28 ATS) and are 34-18 ATS as a favorite. They’ve been especially strong as a road favorite, where they’ve covered 9 of their last 12 spots. As a road chalk in this price range (3′ to 6 points) they’re 6-2 ATS on the year. They’ve also destroyed the Southwest Division this year, with a 13-3 ATS record. Rockets are a ho-hum 16-22 ATS at home and just 11-18 overall in the second half of the season. They’re in the second of a back to back situation as well, and have only 2 pointspread covers in their last nine games. We’ll lay the points with the far superior team who still have a lot to play for.
Bet Utah -5 over Houston
