NBA Betting Odds: Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat

Added on Dec 20, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

A potential NBA Finals preview on Monday night as the Dallas Mavericks head to South Florida to take on the Miami Heat. Heat have won 12 straight going 9-2-1 ATS and Dallas is 14-1 SU in their last 15 games.

Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat
December 20, 2010 4:35 PM Pacific

Rematch of a 11/27 game at Dallas won by the Mavericks 106-95. Since then the public has jumped by on the Heat bandwagon which should give us some line value on the visitors. We saw the Heat in a letdown mode in their last game, a 95-94 win/no cover at Washington and they could be flat again after a couple of huge games last week against LeBron’s former team the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks. Obviously the Heat have a ton of talent and the potential to win big on most nights, but from a tactical standpoint the Mavs aren’t the best matchup for them. Dallas has a great playmaking guard in Jason Kidd, and Dirk Nowitzki is a matchup headache for most NBA big men. The unsung hero of the Dallas rotation is the rapidly improving Tyson Chandler–Chandler may finally be living up to his impressive talent and has become a defensive monster for the Mavs. Here’s what Dirk Nowitzki had to say about Chandler recently:

“It’s almost like when K.G. went to Boston. I don’t think Ray or Paul Pierce were great defenders before K.G. got there, but K.G., with his energy, his defense and his mentality and his high-octane self, he kind of changed the whole momentum on the defense. I think that’s what Tyson did here just with his overall willingness to defend. He talks out there, always a loud communicator, pushing everybody in the right spots. I think that’s what Tyson brings to our team.”

Not a huge Garnett fan, but that’s some beefy praise coming from Nowitzki. If you’ve watched sports for awhile, you know that at some point winning streaks become increasingly difficult to maintain no matter how good the team. At 12 games, the Heat are coming ‘due’ for a loss and the Mavs are a nasty team to face at any point of the season. The talent nucleus has always been there for Dallas, but their newfound defensive intensity is huge. Mavs are 5-1 SU/6-0 ATS as an underdog, 8-1 SU/ATS on the road and 9-3 SU/8-3-1 ATS against opponents with winning records. We’ll gladly take the points with the Mavs here.

Bet Dallas Mavericks +6′ over Miami Heat