NBA Preview: Denver Nuggets at Utah Jazz

Added on Mar 03, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

The other half of tonight’s TNT television double header will feature a Rocky Mountain matchup between the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz. Both teams are in a state of transition at the moment–the Jazz are adjusting to life without longtime coach Jerry Sloan and star pointguard Deron Williams, while the Nuggets are getting used to the absence of Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups.

Denver Nuggets at Utah Jazz
March 3, 2011 7:35 PM Pacific

Both teams are getting used to their new realities, but so far it looks to be going better for the Nuggets than the Jazz. Denver is currently on a 5-1 SU/6-0 ATS run with the only loss during that stretch a 1 point setback to the Blazers at Portland’s Rose Garden Arena. We’d figured that the departure of the malingering Carmelo Anthony would be ‘addition by subtraction’ but our concern was the transition at the point guard spot with Chauncey Billups being included in that deal. So far so good as the duo of Raymond Felton and Ty Lawson have performed admirably. The departure of Anthony has opened up the offense for Nene and that’s something we’ve advocated for awhile now.

Things haven’t gone as well for the Utah Jazz, who are not only trying to work a number of new players into the lineup but get some stability on the bench as Ty Corbin deals with the unenviable task of taking over for Jerry Sloan. We generally like Corbin, but nothing could have prepared him for the turn of events that elevated him to the head coaching position. The conventional wisdom was that the Jazz coaching gig had a de facto order of succession, with longtime assistant Phil Johnson waiting in the wings to take over for Jerry Sloan when he decided to hang ‘em up. As it went down, however, Johnson left along with Sloan leaving Corbin at the helm. We’re not as negative on the Jazz personnel as many of the clueless mainstream sports media types are–Utah made out like bandits in the Williams deal. He’d made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want to stay in Salt Lake City after his contract was up and instead of trying to deny that reality the Jazz management took the pre-emptive step of moving him at the height of his market value getting some good talent and a pair of possible lottery pick draft choices in return.

Longterm things should be fine in Salt Lake City, short term the Jazz could continue to struggle. Heading into tonight’s game they’re on a 5-16 SU/6-15 ATS run. They’re 1-4 SU/ATS as a home favorite of 3′ to 6 points, 12-19 ATS at home overall this season and have dropped 6 of their L7 SU/ATS to opponents with winning records. At this point, Denver has their act together more and a more stable coaching staff. We look for the Nuggets to win outright.

Bet Denver Nuggets +3′ over Utah Jazz