Denver Nuggets at Dallas Mavericks Betting Odds


Opening Line: Nuggets +5.5 / Mavericks -5.5 O/U 211

Time: 8:30 PM EST Monday March 28, 2010 on NBA TV

Tonight in an important Western Conference match up in the Big D the Dallas Mavericks host the Denver Nuggets. Both of these teams will make the playoffs, but each wants to finish the season strong to improve their playoff seed. Dallas is in the 2nd position in the West while Denver and Utah are only .5 of a game back and Phoenix is 1 game back of the Mavs.

For Denver it may be more important to finish the season in the 2nd position so they would be hosting playoff series' until they made it to the conference finals if they make it that far and the Lakers do as well. The more the Nuggets are at home the better, as they are 2 games under .500 on the road this season.

The Mavs are coming off a win and are 6-4 in their last 10 games and the Nuggets are coming off a loss and are 5-5 in their last 10 games. Neither team is playing great, as the Nuggets have lost 4 of 5 and the Mavs have lost 4 of their last 7.

This season the Mavs are 25-11 at home and 29-42-2 ATS and the Nuggets are 18-20 on the road and 31-38-4 ATS.

In their last games the Nuggets lost to the Orlando Magic 103-97 yesterday while the Mavs beat the Golden State Warriors 111-90 on Saturday.

Dirk Nowitzki (24.6 ppg) is in a scoring slump recently, as he only had 13 points in Saturday's win and has not passed the 20-point mark in the last 4 games.

Tonight's game is the first in Dallas between these 2 teams since the Nuggets eliminated the Mavs in last season's playoffs.

Denver can light up the scoreboard, ranking 3rd in the league in scoring, and they may have to tonight, as their defense only ranks 22nd in the league in opponents' points allowed.

Neither of these teams is that good on the boards, as each has a negative rebounding differential. Brendan Haywood (9.3 ppg 9.7 ppg) left Saturday's game with a finger injury and is listed as day to day. Dallas could really use his rebounding in this game and if he can't go it will be a big blow.

Denver's leading rebounder Kenyon Martin is still out with a knee injury and Nene and C Chris Anderson will have to step up and play well on the glass tonight.

Betting Trends

Denver is 0-4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games, 0-7-1 ATS in their last 8 games, and has an Under record of 6-1 in their last 7 games.

Dallas is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games, 4-26-1 ATS in their last 31 home games, and has an Under record of 4-1 in their last 5 games.

Denver is 6-0 ATS in their last 6 games in Dallas and in the last 6 meetings between these 2 teams the total has gone Over 5 times.

Our Selection : Take Over 211 points.


Future Betting Odds

NBA Handicapping

Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat Odds 6-12
The Mavs are up 3-2 in this series heading to South Beach and for the Heat to force Game 7 they will have to play better in the 4th quarter, especially LeBron James. 5Dimes has the hometown Heat as 5-point favorites in Game 6 with a total of 187.

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