Wednesday night in the NBA I will have a free pick in the game between the Utah Jazz and the Houston Rockets, which will take place at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The game has a start time of 8:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised locally. Current Vegas betting odds have Houston listed as 11.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 194. 

Analysis: The Utah Jazz come in playing solid ball at the moment as they have won 7 of their last 9, but still at 38-43 on the year they will be sitting at home when the playoffs begin. Utah is just 17-23 on the road this year. Utah has gone 6-0-1 ATS in their last 7 vs the Southwest and 19-9-2 ATS in their last 30 road games. The Jazz have been a bad offensive team this year, ranking 26th in scoring (95.2 ppg), 18th in shooting, 18th in 3 point shooting and 26th in FT shooting. Defensively the Jazz have been excellent, ranking 1st in points allowed (94.6 ppg), 14th in defensive FG% and 25th in 3 point defense. 

The Houston Rockets have been playing good ball at the moment as they have won 12 of their last 16 games, which now has them at 55-26 on the year, including 29-11 at home. The Rockets currently have the 5th seed in the West. Houston has gone 22-6 ATS in their last 28 games following a ATS loss and 17-8 ATS in their last 25 games vs. a team with a losing S.U. record. The Rockets have be a solid offensive team this year, ranking 5th in scoring (103.8 ppg), 21st in shooting, 14th in 3 point shooting and 27th in FT shooting. Defensively the Rockets have been average this year, ranking 17th in points allowed (100.6 ppg), 13th in defensive FG% and 1st in 3 point defense. 

Pick: Going with the Under here. Can't see the Rockets going all out to score in this one and Utah does have trouble scoring on the road (94 ppg), while the Rockets have allowed just 98 ppg at home. This should not be an uptempo game and it should have much more defense than offense. I look for this one to be played in the 185s.   

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Teddy Covers and Steve Fezzik from Pregame.com give tips and insight for handicapping the dog days of the NBA season.