Utah Jazz inside man Carlos Boozer said it best. “We can’t just bank on the fact that we’re going to be at home to win it for us; we’ve got to show up.” Of course Boozer is referring to the NBA Western Conference finals making its debut at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City with tip-off at 8:30 ET. Tonight’s game is a must win for the Jazz already down 0-2 to the talented and favored San Antonio Spurs. Going into Game-Three, Jazz players are aware no team has ever won an NBA Playoffs series from being down three games.
While the Jazz overcame a two-game deficit in the first round against Houston, starting their rally with two home wins, they know they likely need to take both these games to pull it off again. So far it hasn’t looked good for the Jazz as both games in San Antonio were decided by halftime. Utah hasn’t even led in a game since the first quarter of the Game-One.
Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli have been unstoppable against the Jazz in games One and Two at AT&T Center in San Antonio.
“We’re playing as well as we have all year long,” said Duncan, who is averaging 26.5 points, 12 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.5 blocks this series. “But we go and we look at some film and we still see some little things that we’re doing wrong. And that’s a great feeling to have, to be able to improve on some stuff even in a series up 2-0 in the Western Conference finals.”
Oddsmakers at Sportbet.com expect the Jazz to get a boost from the home crowd and have installed the Jazz as the favorite with a -2.0 chalk and a edge on the money line with a cost of -135. The Spurs are getting +115 juice on the ml. The total is holding at 190.
The betting trend shows the public is slightly on the side of the Jazz with 55 percent of the early betting favoring Utah ATS. The OVER is getting 79 percent of the action in totals betting.
While I fully expect San Antonio to win this series I don’t think they will take it in a four game sweep. I expect the Jazz will find a way to take care of business tonight.
