Jazz @ Nuggets Game 2 Preview

The news is going from bad to worse for the Utah Jazz. They trail their series with the Denver Nuggets 1-0 heading into Monday, and now center Mehmet Okur is out for the season.

Denver is a seven-point home favorite at BroburySports. TNT will broadcast at 10:30 pm ET, right after Chicago (10 ½) at Cleveland. LeBron and the Cavs lead 1-0 in their series as well.

Utah (53-30 SU, 49-31-3 ATS) is having a bad week. They could have clinched third seed in the West, but lost in the regular season finale to Phoenix (100-86).

That was a home game and they were five-point ‘chalk’ despite missing Carlos Boozer. The loss dropped the Jazz to fifth, giving them a trip to Denver.

Boozer returned in Game 1, scoring 19 points, but they still lost 126-113 as 5 ½-point ‘dogs. Carmelo Anthony had 42 points for Denver and they pulled away in the fourth quarter.

To add injury to insult, Okur tore his left Achilles' tendon and is out for the year. Okur is a good shooting threat from the perimeter, especially for a big man. His loss means Denver can sag down even more on Boozer.

Reserve power forward Paul Millsap should move into the starting lineup. He’s more effective off the bench as his 6-foot-8 height is not ideal playing next to the 6-foot-9 Boozer.

The Jazz are already without forward Andrei Kirilenko, who is out for two weeks after aggravating his left calf. C.J. Miles started in place of Kirilenko in the first game and had 17 points in 24 minutes. The bench is real weak now due to all the injuries.

Denver (54-29 SU, 36-41-6 ATS) just needs to stay humble and not get too overconfident. A matchup with the L.A. Lakers could be next, but they first have to take care of business.

Denver is 7-0-2 ATS in the last nine meetings between the teams (including Game 1). The ‘over’ is 5-1 in the last six meetings.

Can the injured Jazz keep it close? We dont think so take the Nuggets in game 2. For more free nba picks visit BangTheBook.Com