{"id":13811,"date":"2011-03-03T10:07:13","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T15:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13811"},"modified":"2011-03-03T10:07:13","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T15:07:13","slug":"nba-betting-preview-denver-nuggets-at-utah-jazz-pro-basketball-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-betting-preview-denver-nuggets-at-utah-jazz-pro-basketball-predictions-13811\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Betting Preview: Denver Nuggets at Utah Jazz Pro Basketball Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets at Utah Jazz
\nThursday, 3\/3\/11, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Utah -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Utah -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 210
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 211<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Utah Jazz have lost six straight home games heading into Thursday night's contest against the Denver Nuggets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denver has been playing its best basketball of the season since trading away star Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks and posted its most lopsided victory with a 120-80 win over Charlotte Wednesday.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re playing together and winning right now,\u201d said point guard Ty Lawson.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s fun for everybody.\u00a0 There\u2019s no sticky hands out there.\u201d\u00a0 The Nuggets have posted a 36-26 overall record this season, but are just 10-19 on the road, including a 5-12 mark versus Western Conference foes.\u00a0 The team has won four of five since being part of the three-team, 13-player deal on February 22.\u00a0 Denver is 30-30 ATS on the season and currently getting points on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Nuggets are just 9-13 overall against the Jazz since the 2005-06 season, but have won six of the last 10 in the series over the past three seasons.\u00a0 Denver has gone just 2-8 in Salt Lake City during this current five-plus year span mentioned above.\u00a0 With the 120-80 win versus Charlotte, the squad secured the fifth largest margin of victory in team history.\u00a0 It was an impressive performance and improved upon the team\u2019s 107.0 scoring average, which currently leads the NBA.\u00a0 Defensively, the team improved to 16-4 when allowing fewer than 100 points this season.\u00a0 After giving up 100-plus points in eight straight games from February 2-14, Denver has held four of its last six points under the century mark.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Utah conducted a trade of its own before the trade deadline and has struggled to find its way since by dropping three of four.\u00a0 The Jazz have allowed an average of 107.3 points over that particular stretch.\u00a0 \u201cDespite the fact we\u2019re losing games, we\u2019re playing way better basketball right now,\u201d forward Andrei Kirilenko said.\u00a0 \u201cRight now, we start building again.\u00a0 So we\u2019re playing better, but we\u2019re not happy with the result.\u201d\u00a0 The team is 5-16 over the last 21 games and that mark includes a season-high six consecutive losses at EnergySolutions Arena.\u00a0 Utah is 12-19 ATS at home this season and 64-54 ATS in that particular situation the last three years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Jazz hold a 97-66 all-time series lead against the Nuggets, including a 65-16 advantage at home.\u00a0 The last time Utah won a regular season series against Denver was the 2006-07 season.\u00a0 Forward Al Jefferson will need to continue is strong play in order to snap the club\u2019s home losing streak, averaging 27.2 points and 11.0 boards over the past six games.\u00a0 Newly acquired point guard Devin Harris will also need to continue gaining confidence in a new offense, as he\u2019s averaged 16.7 points and 7.3 assists since being involved in the Deron Williams trade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Nuggets due to their 6-0 ATS mark, while the Jazz are 0-6 ATS at home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets at Utah Jazz Thursday, 3\/3\/11, 10:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Utah -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Utah -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 210 Current Total:\u00a0 211 Denver has been playing its best basketball of the season since trading away star Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks and posted its most lopsided victory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[526,3652,838,3693],"class_list":["post-13811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-energysolutions-arena","tag-utah-jazz","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13811"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13813,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13811\/revisions\/13813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}