Short NBA betting card for Monday but there’s a couple of Western Conference matchups of interest.  We’ll take a look at the New York Knicks/Utah Jazz game as New York heads to Salt Lake City, and if they can make it there they can make it anywhere.  The Knicks are currently in 11th place in the East, but since their real goal this year has been clearing salary cap space and shedding payroll the season has been a rousing success.  Weren’t all of these salary cap and luxury tax type rules supposed to protect small market teams?  Looking at the standings, the smaller markets seem to be doing pretty well–smaller market teams Utah, Portland, San Antonio and Oklahoma City are all doing just fine.  Back East, you can find most of the ‘big market’ teams rooting around the bottom of the standings–Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit and we won’t even mention New Jersey.  Anyway, big market team New York heads to one of the NBA’s smaller markets for a game tonight.

UTAH JAZZ VS. NEW YORK KNICKS:

Despite being one of the NBA’s best arguments for a relegation system a la European soccer, the New York Knicks don’t have a horrible pointspread record on the road at 14-18.  They’re the kind of team that is always getting points but typically has  enough talent to hang around against teams that ‘play down’ to the level of their opponent.  Unfortunately, the Jazz haven’t done that this season–they’ve beaten up on teams they should beat.  Utah is 33-16 against the spread as a favorite, and 25-10 ATS on their home floor at Salt Lake City’s Energy Solutions Arena.  In this price range–a home favorite of 9′ to 12 points–they’re 6-0 SU/5-0-1 ATS.  They’re 20-11 against teams with losing records this year and have beaten up on the Eastern Conference like the proverbial rented mule this year posting a 20-8 ATS mark.

The Knicks have covered the spread the last two times they played the Jazz in Salt Lake and five straight overall, but since most of this team wasn’t around then that’s of little significance.  They’ll be getting their first taste of the Utah altitude and with only the Golden State Warriors on deck for the Jazz won’t catch the home team in a lookahead situation.  The Knicks opened their five game West Coast road trip losing by 36 at Phoenix, and things won’t get any easier for them here.  Jazz in a rout.

PLAY UTAH -11 OVER NEW YORK