{"id":14823,"date":"2011-04-11T12:28:35","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T17:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14823"},"modified":"2011-04-11T12:28:35","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T17:28:35","slug":"jazz-back-in-old-haunt-utah-travels-to-former-home-city-new-orleans-for-showdown-with-hornets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/jazz-back-in-old-haunt-utah-travels-to-former-home-city-new-orleans-for-showdown-with-hornets-14823\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Back In Old Haunt: Utah Travels to Former Home City New Orleans for Showdown with Hornets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah Jazz AT New Orleans Hornets<\/strong>
\nApril 11, 2011 at 8 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 NO -7.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 NO -7<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 193<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total : 193.5<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 NO -300 \/ Uta +250<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 NO -310 \/ Uta +260<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Utah is turning the ball over way too often to win<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For as good as Chris Paul has been throughout his short NBA career, he like every player has his struggles.\u00a0 He’s scored 7 points or less in 3 of the last\u00a0 5 Hornets games, and was held scoreless last night in Memphis, going 0 of 6 from the floor, as the Hornets lost by 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just couldn\u2019t make nothing,\u201d Paul said. \u201cThere\u2019s a first time for everything. I had some good looks, they just didn\u2019t go in. The only thing we can control is our wins and losses…We\u2019re one of those teams, we haven\u2019t been together long enough to say this is who we want to play, or who we don\u2019t want to play. We\u2019ve just got to continue to play, deal with it as a team, and deal with who we have to play when we get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, when Utah and New Orleans matched up, fans were treated to watching two of the best young point guards in the game go at it in Deron Williams and Chris Paul.\u00a0 Utah, however, mysteriously and unexpectedly traded Williams at the trade deadline and have been punished ever since, winning just 6 of 23 games and falling from the playoff picture altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gotta finish this season with our head up high and have some pride for ourselves. We just ain\u2019t going out here and lay down,\u201d Jazz center Al Jefferson said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re going to play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Utah’s last 7 games and the Jazz are 1-10 SU in their last 11 games.\u00a0 The Jazz are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 5 on the road.\u00a0 Utah is 1-7 SU in their last 8 on the road and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of the last 7 games against the New Orleans Hornets.\u00a0 Utah is 12-4 SU in their last 16 games against the Hornets and the Jazz are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games on the road against the Hornets.\u00a0 Utah is 8-13-1 ATS in their last 23 road games against the Hornets.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 4 of the Hornets’ last 6 games and New Orlenas is 4-2 SU in their last 6.\u00a0 The Hornets are 4-1 SU in their last 5 at home and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 7 against Utah.\u00a0 New Orleans is 4-12 SU in their last 16 against the Jazz and the Hornets are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 against Utah.\u00a0 New Orleans is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against the Jazz and the Hornets are 1-4 SU in their last 5 at home against the Utah Jazz.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Devin Harris vs. Chris Paul<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s not that Devin Harris has been that bad since he got to Utah.\u00a0 It’s just that the Jazz were more dependent upon Deron Williams than perhaps any body realized.\u00a0 Harris has posted a decent line of 15.3 points per game and 5.4 assists per game in 30 minutes of play a night.\u00a0 He’s also backed up by Earl Watson, perhaps one of the best backup point guards in the league.\u00a0 They’ll both butt heads with the struggling Chris Paul who might take this opportunity to take it to the Jazz and emerge from his recent slump.\u00a0 Harris is a decent defender and with his 6’3″ frame he can frustrate Paul if he plays tight defense.\u00a0 However, Paul is a master ball handler and will eventually exploit Harris.\u00a0 The edge at this position goes to the Hornets, leaving the Jazz to have to catch up in the front court.<\/p>\n

Paul Millsap & Al Jefferson vs. Carl Landry & Emeka Okafor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Utah has the advantage here.\u00a0 Millsap and Jefferson are both good scorers and rebounders, while Landry is the only one of New Orleans’ tandem that can score a lot.<\/p>\n

Okafor is a decent scorer but is the worst of the four with only 10.5 points per game.\u00a0 His rebounding has been steady at 9.6 a game, half a rebound higher than last season.\u00a0 His blocked shots are also up from 1.6 last season to 1.8 this season.\u00a0 Okafor, despite being listed at 6’10” is much closer to 6’7″ but with his length he has been able to make up for it.\u00a0 Many thought when he entered the league that he would be Ben Wallace PLUS offense, but he hasn’t quite played at Big Ben’s peak level.\u00a0 He should be able to keep Jefferson from having a monster game though, as Millsap and Landry more or less cancel one another out.<\/p>\n

In theory Utah should be well matched to give New Orleans a game, but the Jazz have been turning the ball over far too often and the Hornets are playing for seeding, while Utah is playing for nothing but pride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utah Jazz AT New Orleans Hornets April 11, 2011 at 8 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 NO -7.5 Current Line:\u00a0 NO -7 Opening Total:\u00a0 193 Current Total : 193.5 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 NO -300 \/ Uta +250 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 NO -310 \/ Uta +260 For as good as Chris Paul has been throughout his short NBA career, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[836,838],"class_list":["post-14823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-new-orleans-hornets","tag-utah-jazz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14823","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14825,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14823\/revisions\/14825"}],"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=14823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}