2010 NBA Playoffs Prediction: Denver Nuggets vs. Utah Jazz

No other series in the 2010 NBA Playoffs will rely as much on home-court advantage as the game between the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz. Both teams play terrifically at home, especially in the playoffs. Utah's drop into the five-seed in the Western Conference may very well be the deciding factor in their playoff series against Denver.

Denver Nuggets 2010 NBA Playoffs Preview

The Denver Nuggets have had a rough year. They came into the season as the one team who was thought to have the strength to knock off the Lakers and come out of the Western Conference. Now, with Kenyon Martin still recovering from a knee injury and coach George Karl undergoing cancer treatment, the Nuggets seem to be one of the more vulnerable Western Conference playoff teams.

In order to overcome their deficiencies, the Nuggets are going to have to trust their leading scorer and team leader, Carmelo Anthony. Anthony is one of the best players in the league, and yet it seems like the Nuggets aren't doing a great job of getting the ball into Anthony's hands when the game is on the line. If the rest of the team isn't completely healthy, Anthony will need to dominate games in order for the Nuggets to make it past a very strong Utah Jazz squad.

Utah Jazz 2010 NBA Playoffs Preview

Going into the final day of the regular season, the Utah Jazz had a chance to secure a high-seed in the Western Conference and have home-court advantage for the first round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. Instead, they lost to Phoenix and dropped to the five-seed, meaning they'll have to play four times in Denver if the series goes to seven games.

The Jazz struggled early in the season, but seemed to be in the driver's seat for the two-seed in the West going into April. Big losses to the Lakers, Suns, and Rockets, however, doomed the Jazz to a nightmare first round matchup. Denver went 3-1 against Utah in the regular season, and even if the Jazz win their first round series, both potential opponents in the second round (the Lakers and the Thunder) were also 3-1 against the Jazz in the regular season.

Jazz vs. Nuggets Conclusion

It won't surprise anyone if this playoff series is the closest of any of the series out West. It also won't surprise anyone if both teams sweep the series at home, with the Nuggets winning merely because they get to play four games in Denver and only three in Utah.

2010 NBA Playoffs Prediction: Nuggets defeat Jazz, 4-3

Source(s):

All statistics retrieved from ESPN.comhttp://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2010/matchup/_/teams/jazz-nuggets