Dallas Mavericks @ New Orleans Hornets o190
Wed February 20 ‘08 8:05p
The New Orleans Hornets offense has been clicking on all cylinders of late , eclipsing the 100 point plateau in 12 of their L14 contests. They have set the pace for a majority of those games, and will once again push the action tonight against the visiting Dallas Mavericks. Look for the Hornets to force their capable opponents, who have averaged 99.3 PPG on the season, to reciprocate with some fire works of their own or be blown off the court. I know Dallas struggled on offense just before the all star break, but the rest, and a trade that has seen Jason Kidd come over from New Jersey, will have the team rejuvenated and ready to respond in what I predict will be a run and gun affair. Final notes & Key Trends: The Hornets have gone OVER in 4 straight home games, and have jumped over the number in 5 of their L6 against against Western conference opposition. Play Over

Utah @ BYU u133.0 (-110)
Wed February 20 ‘08 10:00p
Mountain West action heats up tonight when the (15-8) Utah Utes invade Provo to take on heated rival BYU and their gaudy 20-5 SU mark. Utah currently sits 3-games in back of the Cougars for the top spot in the conference with SD State, New Mexico, and UNLV in between. Away from Salt Lake City, the Utes have been very mediocre. They own a 5-5 SU mark, but they’ve made their backers very happy by cashing in 7 of those 10 games ATS. As for the Cougars, they’re a perfect 13-0 SU in the comfy confines of the Marriott Center, but they’ve only managed a 4-4-1 mark ATS in their nine lined games.

We last saw Utah on Saturday afternoon when they struggled to put away an undermanned San Diego State Aztecs club. The 6-point win fell four short of covering the 9-point spread, but the win was their fourth in a row and 5th in their L/6. The Utes have taken part in four Mt. West road games this season and stand at 2-2 SU and ATS. Most recently, they went into Colorado Springs and upended the Air Force Falcons by a 67-59 final count and before that defeated Colorado State by 15-points easily covering the 8-point spread. Their pair of road losses came in overtime to both SD State (whom they just beat) and to New Mexico.

Since getting pasted at UNLV for their only conference loss of the season, BYU has rattled off 8 straight victories and covered the spread in six of those affairs. They’re coming off a huge revenge game that saw them dish out the same type of punishment to UNLV that they received when they paid Sin City a visit back in mid January. The 74-48 win was their moist lopsided conference win of the season, but they’ll have to get right back up tonight to welcome in their most hated rival.

BYU went into SLC and escaped with a 55-52 road win and cover about a month ago, and the win was their 3rd in a row over their instate rivals. Utah is a poor 2-5 ATS the L/7 meetings with BYU, and they’re a very poor 3-8 ATS their L/11 games as a visiting underdog. Total players take note: The Under is 8-2 ATS in the Cougars L/10 against teams playing .600 ball, and 4-1 ATS in the Cougars L/5 games in which they were favored by 7-12.5 points. The Under is also 4-1 ATS the L/5 times the Utes have been installed road pups.

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