Utah -8

What else can I say, Utah has been crushing lately!  Covered 5 in a row as big favorites the last 2 weeks. In fact the smallest margin of victory in those games was 16 points.   Utah is one of the few teams that still has a lot to play for, they could get anything from a 3-seed to an 8-seed in the playoffs, and grabbing home-court could really set up well for them to reach the Western Conference Finals.  Atlanta fits perfectly in line with the past 5 subpar teams that Utah took care of business with. 

Atlanta hasn’t had anything to be optimistic about all year, never been in any kind of playoff race and just trying to figure things out for the future.  Huge motivational edge favoring the Jazz here.  Atlanta has been a dismal 14-21 ATS at home, not much of a home crowd advantage when nobody shows up to your arena on a week night game.

The only small edge for Atlanta I can find is the scheduling edge where they didn’t have to play last night while Utah is playing a B2B 3^rd in 4 scenario.  However, I think that can be a little misleading as Utah has been blowing out teams early and really being able to manage and limit the minutes of their starters.

So I’m going to lay the chalk, ride the hot, motivated, superior team, and fade the horrid Hawks all the way to the bank!