The set-up: The 7-12 Denver Nuggets could do nothing to contain Houston's offense in a 128-110 loss to the Rockets Friday night in Denver and now travel to Salt Lake City to take on the 11-9 Utah Jazz, who are coming off a 111-100 home loss to Miami Thursday night, as injuries are becoming an early season ‘broken record!'

Denver: The Nuggets caught the Rockets playing less than 24 hours after having ended Golden State's 12-game winning streak the night before in Oakland (a great situational spot!) but seven Houston players scored in double figures, led by James Harden's modest 20 points. The Rockets shot 50.6 percent from the floor and had 25 assists on 45 made FGs. Playing poor defense is nothing new for Denver, as the Nuggets have held just four opponents under 100 points this season and are now allowing 109.7 PPG on the season (27th), after allowing 115.8 points per game over their last six.

Utah: George Hill (20.2 PPG) and Rodney Hood (16.1 PPG) both sat out on Thursday night because of injuries, so Jazz head coach Quin Snyder was forced to trot out his 11th different starting lineup in 20 games. Utah allowed 64 points in the paint, the most it has given up to any opponent this season, in Thursday's loss with Snyder suggesting his team was too soft and lackadaisical when it counted after allowing the Heat to do whatever they wanted around the basket."You can point to certain things but, by the time we woke up defensively, it was late and we had to expend a lot of energy," Snyder said. "You put yourself in a tough position. We lacked physicality critically in the first half."

The pick: I realize that Utah ranks first in points allowed (94.6 PPG) and first in opponents' FG percentage (42.3%) but the Jazz have both scored and allowed 100-plus points in each of their last three games. Those three finals have averaged 219.0 PPG. The Over is a 10* play.