Nick Parsons Available Picks

May, 16 2008 10:30pm EST
ATS: Los Angeles Lakers +4 (-110)
WIN for +1.82 unit(s)

Los Angeles Lakers at Utah Jazz

Play ON Los Angeles Lakers (+) @ Utah @ 10:35 PM ET The Jazz could be starting their summer vacations after tonight if they fail to come up with a home win versus the Lakers on Friday. Interestingly enough, Andrei Kirilenko seems to know something about this already. He missed practice yesterday with Utah because he was working on visa issues relating to a summer vacation to France. Maybe Kirilenko knows that the Jazz are finished here. One thing is for certain; the Lakers have gotten into the heads of Utah players. The Jazz were complaining that a foul should have been called on Los Angeles Center Pau Gasol late in Game Fives Lakers win. The push that Gasol gave to Mehmet Okur may have indeed warranted being a foul call. However, for the Jazz to be getting hung up on this is a mistake. Theyre lamenting how Game Five got away from them and theyre pondering how ridiculously tough it will be to come up with back to back wins against these Lakers so that they can advance to the Western Conference Finals. The mental part of the game is extremely important and the Jazz just are not in the proper mindset right now! This line has risen to a 4 after opening at a 3 and this is offering solid line value to the road dog. Yes, the home teams have dominated this postseason but note that the Jazz have been far from dominant in their two wins over the Lakers in this series. One came by just five points and the other victory came in overtime. Now the Jazz will be dealing with a Lakers team whose confidence has been even further boosted by the fact that they won Game Four even without Kobe Bryant scoring in the fourth quarter. The Lakers star had been bothered by a back problem and it seemed to stiffen up on him as Game Five went on. However, others stepped in and did their jobs and Bryant still had a solid all-around game even without being Kobe-like. The Lakers played better defense in Game Five and this included eight blocked shots and nine steals. Los Angeles is also fully focused on slowing down Deron Williams in this game. As he goes, so go the Jazz as the point guard is a key cog in their system. Look for the Lakers to do a better job of keeping Williams out of the lane in this game. Also, the Lakers should continue to do a good job on Carlos Boozer as they held him to just 6 of 16 from the floor on Wednesday. Lakers should end this series here and the points offer good value should Los Angeles come up just short! Grab the road dog in this one!