vlaze.com

Heading into Friday's action Houston and Utah sit with the 4 and 5 seed and would meet in the first round of the playoffs. Houston owns a better record heading into Friday's action and would host the playoff series. If both teams finish with identical records to finish the season, which is a possibility, the winner of this game would determine home court as they have split their first two meetings. So this game has purpose. Utah has been phenomenal at home this season sporting a record of 27-12 ATS through 39 home games. I don't think Utah would want to risk winning another Game 7 at Houston like they did last year to advance in the playoffs. The Rockets will have problems here defending the big men down low in Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur with Yao out of their lineup and especially on Utah's home court. The Jazz lost to Houston at home with Yao in the lineup and beat the Rockets in Houston with Yao out of the lineup. Utah shot for a higher percentage against the Rockets this season in their second meeting without Yao in the middle. The inside outside game worked well for Utah in victory as Boozer connected late with clutch shots and Korver got hot from the outside. Mehmet Okur has been playing great averaging over 20 points per game in his last 4. Utah plays with a lot of energy at home and I will not step in front of them in this contest. Take the Jazz -5