More NBA betting action for Friday night and this is even better since its a play on Milwaukee which means more of their lovely dance squad the ENERGEE! Dancers.   Would we still bet on the Bucks as often as we do if their dance team wasn’t so hot?  Of course we would–the way they’ve been covering pointspreads we’d be betting on them if their dance squad was all gnarly and hammered looking.  Fortunately they’re not, which makes it a lot more pleasant.  Milwaukee is one of the league’s hottest teams at the moment, winning 9 of their L10 and have moved into 5th place in the Eastern Conference.  The Jazz have been playing well for most of the year now and are in 4th place in the Western Conference which is going to be really interesting down the stretch.  Utah trails 3rd place Denver by 1 game, 2nd place Dallas by 2 games and are only 4.5 games behind the first place Los Angeles Lakers.  Not that they can even bank on fourth place, since they’re only 2.5 games ahead of Oklahoma City and Phoenix who are tied for 5th and 6th.  Like I said, the West race is going to be insane down the stretch–even 8th place Portland is only 9 games out of first.

UTAH JAZZ VS. MILWAUKEE BUCKS:

Two of the best pointspread teams in the league meet up in Milwaukee.  The Jazz are 40-21 ATS, 19-11 ATS on the road and 21-9 ATS against teams with winning records.  Milwaukee is 40-21 ATS, 19-10 ATS at home and 16-10 ATS against teams with winning records.  The Jazz have also brutalized the Eastern Conference this year, going 17-6 SU/16-6-1 ATS against them.  In their last 25 games Utah is 17-5-2 against the spread.  In their last 25 games, Milwaukee is 20-3-2 against the pointspread (and their last game which was a ‘push’ against the closing line of -2 was readily available at better prices most of the day).

We’re going to back the Bucks for a couple of reasons.  First of all, the Jazz have a more important game against a conference foe on Sunday as they head to Oklahoma City for a game against the Thunder.  Utah is much improved on the road at 17-14 SU but the Bucks have become a dominant home team with a 21-9 SU record.  This is the Jazz’s third road game in four days and with easy wins at Chicago and Detroit already in the bag could come out flat here.  Jerry Sloan has been concerned about their porous second half defense on this road trip–that was something they could get away with against the Bulls and Pistons but not against the rapidly improving Bucks.

PLAY MILWAUKEE PK OVER UTAH

And here’s the ENERGEE! Dancers doing a routine to ‘You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party’: