Messages

A little worried about all this Laker loving, but there is NO indication that the Jazz should keep this game close.  Lakers won by 10+ in each of the last 3 they played, even being one of the four teams that beat utah IN utah.  The trip is that Utah has never even seen pau gasol.  The first 3 games were played before the gasol trade and the last one in utah happened with pau out with that sprained ankle.  The lakers just flat out OWN the jazz, and they got to rest while the rockets took the jazz to 6.  Riding the "Fade the Jazz on the road" theorum as well. 

Also if you look at the matchups, the lakers look really good.
The first and most important in my opinion is D Fish on Deron williams.  Fish is one of the bigger bodied guards in the league and is a quick strong defender, one of the few in the leagues who Deron can't push and bully around.  He should be able to stifle him enough to force the rest of the team to stand up and that's where problems come in.  Okur and Kirelinko are garbage away and a Gasol, or Vlad Rad matchup should neutralize those guys enough.  Boozer will run into Lamar Odom who has done an outstanding job of slowing down big scoring forwards (esp. Boozer and Dirk... sometimes David West) Whoever gets Kobe will just hate life because noone can guard him and the jazz are probably even moreso at a loss because their best defenders aren't swingman defenders.  He'll probably get Brewer or Harpring and just kill them.

All in all, the lakers are the best team in the west and the jazz still have too many road problems and just like in the lakers first series, they own their round 2 opponent.  The jazz will win at least one and maybe two or three, but I say the Lakers take it in 5 or 6.  Most importantly for right now, they are in an excellent position to cover the hell out of this game.

Lakers -7 (big)
(considering the under, given utahs ability to just tank games on the road sometimes, but won't touch the amount i throw ATS)