NBA Betting Odds – Lakers vs Jazz

Tonight’s game two matchup between the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers will pit two masterful coaches head to head once more. The difference is Phil Jackson has 10 Titles, Jerry Sloan has none but that shouldn’t discount the job Sloan has done over the past 20 years with the Utah Jazz. Sloan will need to come up with a plan to stop Kobe Bryant, ever since Kevin Durant and the Thunder in game four of the opening round waked up Kobe, Kobe has been Kobe and that means bad news for anyone in the Lakers way.

The NBA Odds makers have the Los Angeles Lakers at -5½ point favorites but that is one point off where it opened. The line opened at -6½ but some heavy cash has been flowing the Jazz’s way, pushing the spread lower. The NBA game total is 199 points.

NBA Betting Odds
May 4, 2010
Utah Jazz +5½ -110 +240
Los Angeles Lakers -5½ -110 -290
Game Total 199

Game Time: 10:30 PM
TV: TNT

Since the game four embarrassment, the Lakers have won three straight and in the past two games Kobe Bryant has scored 32 and 31 points. Pau Gasol has stepped things up for the Lakers as well, his hustle play at the end of game six won the series for the Lakers and his 25 and 12 performance in game one of this series was too much for any of the Jazz to counter. If the Jazz are to win this game, not only will they need a Kobe stopper, they will need someone to matchup against Gasol.

The Jazz may get the help they need if Andrei Kirilenko is back for game two and there is speculation he will be back. Kirilenko, despite being overpaid and on a bad contract can play defense and his long arms and knack for blocking shots will make it difficult for Paul Gasol to operate inside and get those easy buckets.

The trouble for the Jazz is that if they can slow down Kobe and Gasol, they still have to contend with Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, who are both capable of putting the Lakers on their backs and winning a game in the series. The only concern here is that Bynum is playing through a knee injury, which he has admitted will likely need surgery in the offseason. Still if he can play through the pain the Lakers inside game is head and shoulders above the finesse bigs of the Jazz.

In Sunday night’s game, the Lakers were 24 for 30 on shots close to the basket, which number is far too high for any team to give up if they want to win in this league.

I have no doubt Jerry Sloan can come up with a game plan to beat the Lakers but unfortunately, he doesn’t have the horses to execute his plan. The Jazz got by a rattled and disorganized Nuggets team, I don’t see them getting by the Lakers, especially at the Staples Center. Lakers win by continuing to expose the inside inadequacies of the Jazz.

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