Or, how many ‘Z’s’ can we get into a title?  Incidentally, the cropped picture of the Jazz Dancer doesn’t do it justice–you owe it to  yourself to check out the full sized picture.  The Utah Jazz host the Washington Wizards tonight at the Energy Solutions Arena in the shadows of the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake City, Utah.  If the NBA were high school, the Jazz would be a straight A student but one that is awkward with girls while the Wizards would ride the short bus and spend the day in a ‘special’ class where they never seem to actually do work or learn anything.   The Jazz have lost two straight–on the road at Oklahoma City and Milwaukee, neither teams of which are a joke any more–but still hold down 4th place in the Western Conference just 1/2 game ahead of the aforementioned Thunder and 2 1/2 games behind third place Dallas.  Washington is in a heated battle with Indiana, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit and Indiana for the second worst record in the East (the Nets have already clinched the cellar).  The Wiz showed a little bit of life after Gilbert Arenas was suspended but now they’re a mess despite getting some good individual play from Randy Foye and Andray Blatche.  I’d say they’re in freefall, but that isn’t really fair to gravity to make that comparison.  Washington is 1-9 SU/3-7 ATS in their L10 but that’s nothing a West Coast road trip with stops in Utah, Denver, Portland and LA to play the Lakers won’t cure now is it?

WASHINGTON WIZARDS VS. UTAH JAZZ

Actually, that’s a gauntlet that includes the 3 top home teams in the West plus a Portland team that hasn’t been quite as formidable at The Rose Garden this season but is fighting for their playoff lives.  The first leg is particularly brutal–back to back games in Salt Lake City and Denver where they have to play a couple of elite teams on their tough home court at high altitude.  They’ll also have the full attention of the Jazz off of back to back losses and needing to keep pace in the Conference race.  Washington may catch a break in that Mehmet Okur may be out of the lineup, but Deron Williams has been upgraded to ‘probable’.  Utah has been playing great ball at home, and have an ATS record that hearkens back to the days when the Stoctkon/Malone era Jazz dominated teams at the Delta Center (and The Salt Palace before that) and were one of the most profitable home teams against the spread in the NBA.  Utah is 21-10 ATS at home this year and are currently on a 10-3-2 ATS run in their building.  And if you’re concerned about the ‘back to back’ spot, don’t be–that was something the team *has* left in the Stockton/Malone era with this year’s Jazz putting up a 9-4 ATS mark in the second of back to back games.  Jazz have also butchered the Eastern Conference this year going 17-7 SU/16-7-1 ATS.

Wizards *did* pull off a back door cover when they played at Utah last year, losing by 15 as +15′ underdogs.   With the Jazz better this season and Washington worse, have to wonder why Utah is just a -11 favorite.

PLAY UTAH -11 OVER WASHINGTON