The Utah Jazz will look to take another step toward locking down the top seed in the Western Conference when they host the Indiana Pacers on Friday night. Utah has won seven of 10 and sits atop the Western Conference standings, 1.5 games ahead of Phoenix. Indiana is currently in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings, one game behind eighth place Charlotte. The Pacers have split their last 10 games, but comes into this matchup of a confidence-boosting win the last time out. Let’s take a closer at both teams and how they arrive to this matchup so you can make your bets against their NBA odds.
NBA Betting Predictions – Utah Looks to Tame Visiting Indiana
Indiana Pacers (26-28) Vs Utah Jazz (41-14) Match Info
- When: Friday, April 16, 2021, at 3:00 p.m. ET
- Where: Vivint Arena, Salt Lake City, UT
- TV: NBATV, AT&T Sportsnet – RocBally Sports Indiana
- Radio: KZNS / S: KTUB93.5/107.5 The Fan
Pacers Looking to Pick Up The Pace
Indiana has won four of five and comes into this matchup fresh off a 132-124 road win over Houston on Wednesday night. Caris LeVert scored a team-high 27 points while Domantas Sabonis added 22 points. Malcolm Brogdon nearly finished with a triple-double by going for 23 points, nine assists and 14 rebounds.
“It’s just chemistry,” Brogdon said of the team’s latest improvements. “It’s guys learning how to play with each other and learning our strengths and weaknesses. When you add a huge playmaker and scorer and a great player like Caris LeVert, it’s going to take some time to get used to his style of play and for him to get used to how we play.”
Indiana is averaging 113.9 points per game (11th) on 47.4% shooting from the field (11th) and 36.1% from beyond the arc (16th). Defensively, the Pacers allow 114.1 points per game (22nd) on 47.1% shooting from the field (21st) and 37.4% from three-point distance (21st).
Jazz Look to Keep Pedal to the Metal
Utah has won seven of its last 10 games, but is 3-3 over its last six. The Jazz picked up a 106-96 home win over Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. Bojan Bogdanovic scored a team-high 23 points and Donovan Mitchell added 22. Bogdanovic scored a season-high 33 points in his previous game.
“We had guys out on this back-to-back, so we’re ran way more sets of fences for me so I was able to get to the basket and draw the fouls,” Bogdanovic said.
Utah averages 117.0 points per game (3rd) on 46.6% shooting from the field (16th) and 38.9% from beyond the arc (3rd). Defensively, the Jazz limit the opposition to 107.5 points per game (4th) on 44.6% shooting from the field (2nd) and 34.4% from three-point distance (3rd).
Expert Analysis and Prediction
Indiana is 4-6 ATS over its last 10 games while alternating ATS wins and losses over the last eight games. Utah is 0-2 ATS in its last two games and 2-4 ATS in its last six games. The Jazz have won nine of their last 13 home games against Indiana and 19 of their last 20 at Vivint Arena overall. Utah gets the win, but if the NBA betting odds spread is over four or five points at most, I like Indiana to cover.
Pick: Utah 114 Indiana 110
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