NBA NW: Nuggets and Jazz in Action Saturday
With the Thunder stumbling a bit in recent weeks, the door has been left open slightly for the Nuggets and the Jazz, who are six and a half and nine games back in the Northwest Division respectively. Of course, more important for both of these teams is staying in the Western Conference playoff hunt and each will get a chance to improve their chances today as they both go on the road. Here are the match-ups in the Northwest Division today.
Denver Nuggets -9.5 at Charlotte Bobcats +9.5
The Nuggets have not enjoyed much success on the road this season (11-19), but they’ll have a great chance to change that against the NBA’s worst team – the Charlotte Bobcats.
It’s been another tough year for the Bobcats, who come into today’s game with the league’s worst record (13-42) and they’ll likely have a hard time stopping one of the best scoring offenses in the NBA, as the Nuggets are averaging 105.1 points per game.
Despite this being a big mismatch, the Bobcats will likely keep things close and cover +9.5 points today. The Nuggets haven’t been playing their best lately, as losers of four of their last 10, and the Bobcats will have the home floor today, where they’ve played much better this season. Take Charlotte to cover the spread today in a loss.
Utah Jazz +9 at Los Angeles Clippers -9
We can somewhat understand the reason for the large point spread in the previous game, but we are a bit baffled by the large spread here. The Utah Jazz – although not as strong on the road – have maintained a solid record out West and have had success against some of the conferences best teams. The Clippers have won all three meetings between the teams this season, but two of those came by two points or fewer.
Utah has also performed better than Los Angeles recently, winning seven of its last 10, compared to L.A.’s 5-5 record in the same amount of games. Again, we’re not sure why the Clippers have had such a huge edge, other than the fact that they are 21-6 at home this season.
There’s no question that the Clippers should prevail today, but it won’t be by nine points. Look for Utah to keep things close and cover +9 in defeat.
