NBA - 801 Los Angeles Lakers @ 802 Dallas Mavericks
Projected Line: Dallas by 6 points
The Lakers won back to back games and all I hear now is that they will be at the playoffs for sure, etc. But I'm just not buying this improvement, especially on a game where they are on a terrible physical spot with several key players banged up, while they have played last Friday night at 10:30 EST at home and they will now play an early 1PM EST game at Dallas! Besides that, the Mavericks are a terrible matchup for them because Dallas's offense excels in the biggest weakness of the Lakers defense: transitions plays! The Lakers have been a terrible transition defensive team the whole season and even on their last game against the Blazers, who isn't a team that likes to run that much, they allowed 17 fast break points with 7-10 FG and 1.25 PPP in transitions! Well, Dallas is just eating their opponents alive on transitions, especially at home where they have scored 27, 22, 29, 14, 24 and 20 fast break points on their last six games!
We can be pretty sure that Dallas will set a very fast pace on this contest in order to run the old, slow and "depthless" Lakers out of the gym! Coach Carlisle has finally found a solid rotation with Bernard James starting and a second unit with great chemistry, with Elton Brand, Vince Carter, Jae Crowder and Mike James! Of course the Lakers will have a big edge with Dwight Howard down low against the Mavericks's lack of size in the frontcourt, however Howard isn't ready to compete for 48 minutes and especially in a fast paced game like today's contest.
This isn't so much news as affirmation of the obvious. "I usually can play 45-48 minutes without getting tired," said Dwight Howard. "Now after five possessions I'm winded ... [Hopefully] by the time we get to the playoffs, I'll be in pretty good shape."
Everybody is talking about the Lakers, but Dallas has been under the radar and they will have today a big chance to prove that they are a much improved team right now in comparison to the start of the season. Therefore, I expect the Mavericks to have a very comfortable today and so, I'll be taking them in here!
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 802 Dallas Mavericks (-3) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bovada
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