Utah at San Antonio

The Conference Finals kick off today. Many NBA fans are dissapointed that the Spurs are here. They feel the Suns got screwed by David Stern. Maybe. But San Antonio deserves to be here. The Jazz definitely deserve to be here. They took care of a wild and crazy Golden State team that upset the #1 seed Mavericks. Utah showed grit and strength in that series and will now face a very different team here. Unfortunately for Utah, their great run is likely to come to an end in this series. As good as they are, as far as they have come, San Antonio is just too good. The Jazz won't have an inside advantage in this series like they did in their two prior. And, the pressure of being in the Conference Finals will likely weigh heavy on them as compared to the calm "been here, done that" Spurs. Utah scored over 100 in each of their games against Golden State and their games averaged 221 points. They got used to running and gunning. While this series promises to be MUCH lower scoring in comparison, we think this total is set way too low. San Antonio averaged 99 points per game at home this season. They should get to the century mark here against a Utah team that allowed 100 ppg on the road this season. That leaves 85 for Utah and they should have no trouble getting there. Utah has averaged 100 ppg in the playoffs and they scored 101.3 per game during the regular season. The Jazz are 72-52 OVER the past three seasons vs. winning teams and 22-11 OVER this season as an underdog. They are also 23-11 OVER on the road this season to a total between 180 and 190 and 22-13 OVER following 2+ straight wins.