Philadelphia at Utah

The perception here is that Utah is by far the superior team, and the odds makers certainly make that obvious with the line on this game. The reality is that these are teams heading in opposite directions. Utah opened at 13-5 and has since been a 4-11 team. During the 13-5 start they were scoring 107.1 points per game, but since have dropped to 102.1 ppg, or a loss of five ppg. They have seen the same lapse defensively as well. They were allowing 98.1 ppg in the first 18 games, but have since been allowing 103.6 ppg, or a loss of 5.5 ppg. This team has therefore been collectively 11 ppg worse over the last 15 games and the record shows just 4-11. As expected, Philadelphia has started bad. They went 5-13, but have since been 9-4. They went from scoring 91.5 ppg to 95.9 ppg, or an increase of 4.5 ppg. Defensively they went from allowing 95 ppg, to 92.4 or 2.6 ppg better. Overall, Philadelphia has been seven ppg better. That means together these teams are now 18 ppg different of late, on the Philadelphia side! We will take the points here because that's where the value lies.