L.A. Lakers at Dallas Mavericks Betting Odds


Opening Line: L.A. +1 / Dallas -1 O/U 194.5

Time: 9 PM EST Wednesday February 24, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in a Western Conference match up the Dallas Mavericks host the L.A. Lakers. The Mavs pulled the trigger on a big deal in order for them to move into the elite in the West and challenge the Lakers and they will have their chance tonight to see if that will happen. It will not be easy, as the Lakers recently got Kobe Bryant back, who hit the game winner in the Lakers' win last night.

The Mavs have won 4 in a row, are 6-4 in their last 10 games, and are in 4th position in the West. The Lakers are coming off a win, are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and lead the West with a 5.5 game lead over the Denver Nuggets.

This season the Mavericks are 18-9 at home and 23-24 ATS and the Lakers are 17-9 on the road and 25-30-1 ATS.

In their last games the Lakers beat the Memphis Grizzlies 99-98 last night and the Mavs beat the Indiana Pacers 91-82 on Monday night.

The Lakers have won 7 of their last 8 games on the road.

This will be the first game the Lakers will see the new look Mavs after they traded for Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson.

Even though Caron Butler (16.7 ppg) was the big name in the trade it is Haywood that has made the biggest impact and it is with his defense. With him in the starting lineup the Mavs have yet to lose (4-0) and he is averaging 11.2 ppg 11 rpg and 2.4 blocks per game.

The Mavs have opponents under 100 ppg since making the trade and before that their previous 8 opponents had all scored over 100 points.

The Mavs envisioned Haywood and Erick Dampier giving them 2 7-footers in the middle, but Dampier is out another 2-4 weeks with a finger injury. Haywood will have his hands full tonight against the Lakers' 7-foot duo of Pau Gasol (17.4 ppg 11.1 rpg) and Andrew Bynum (15.2 ppg 8.1 rpg).

Butler is a solid perimeter defender and he will have to guard Kobe and not let him blow up in the scoring department. In 3 games against Dallas this season Kobe has only averaged 15 ppg on 40.5% shooting, but the Lakers have won 2 of those games.

If Dallas can win this game it will give them a ton of confidence knowing they can beat the Lakers, who they may have to face in the playoffs.

L.A. is 5-2-1 ATS in their last 8 road games, 3-8-1 ATS in their last 12 road games against teams with a winning home record, and has an Under record of 6-0 in their last 6 road games.

Dallas is 6-23 ATS in their last 29 home games, 1-5 ATS in their last 6 home games against teams with a winning road record, and has an under record of 4-1 in their last 5 games.

In the Lakers last 4 games in Dallas they are 3-0-1 ATS.

Our Selection : The Mavericks have obviously jelled since thier blockbuster trade at the All Star break, winning 4 straight. They face what might be a tired Lakers team that will be playing back to back and may have some conditioning issues playing only 3 games in the last 13 days. Take Dallas -2


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