{"id":11312,"date":"2010-12-07T02:13:16","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T07:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11312"},"modified":"2010-12-07T02:13:16","modified_gmt":"2010-12-07T07:13:16","slug":"free-nba-picks-golden-state-warriors-at-dallas-mavericks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-nba-picks-golden-state-warriors-at-dallas-mavericks-11312\/","title":{"rendered":"Free NBA Picks: Golden State Warriors At Dallas Mavericks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golden State Warriors AT Dallas Mavericks
\nTuesday, 12\/07\/2010 8:30 EST
\nOpening Betting line:\u00a0 Dallas Mavericks -10
\nCurrent Betting line:\u00a0 Dallas Mavericks -9
\nCurrent Total: Undefined<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Dirk is shooting nearly 70% from the floor in his last two games.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Golden State enters tonight’s game with an 8-12 record and has struggled mightly since starting the season with a 4-1 record.\u00a0 They have lost their last three games and won only 2 of their last 10.\u00a0 Dallas, meanwhile, is only the hottest team in basketball.\u00a0 They have won nine straight games, and are 16-4 overall.\u00a0 During the winning streak, they have knocked off Utah, in Utah; Miami, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City.\u00a0 Their last loss was almost three weeks ago on November 19th to the Bulls.<\/p>\n

What has enabled Dallas to be so successful is their suffocating defense.\u00a0 Giving up a 3rd best in the league 92.2 points a game has enabled Dallas to win by an average of 5.9 points per game.\u00a0 They are 2nd in opponents field goal percentage, allowing 43.1% shooting.<\/p>\n

Dallas sports an 8-3 record at home and are 10-3 against the Western Conference.\u00a0 On the other side of the coin, Golden State is the third worst defensive team in the league, giving up 106.9 points a game, while scoring 101.8 per game, a -5.1 average.<\/p>\n

Dallas is 4-5-2 ATS at home and Golden State is 6-5 ATS on the road.\u00a0 Overall, Golden State is 10-10 ATS and Dallas is 11-7-2.\u00a0 Golden State is 3-7 ATS in their last ten games, while Dallas is 7-3 ATS in their last 10.\u00a0 Dallas has won the last three matchups against Golden State, as well.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups in tonight’s game include:
\n
\nPoint Guard – Stephen Curry vs. Jason Kidd<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curry burst onto the NBA scene last year with an awesome second half of the season in which he averaged 42.6 minutes a game.\u00a0 This year, his minutes are down from that stretch of game to 34:30 per game, but his scoring average is up over last year’s 17.5 ppg to 21.2 this year.\u00a0 In addition to scoring 21+ he is averaging 5.8 assists per game and ripping the ball away frequently for 2.3 steals per game.\u00a0 Last game, against Oklahoma City, Curry got the best of Russell Westbrook in a 39 point outburst in which he shot 70% from the floor (14 of 20 & 4 of 7 from three).\u00a0 Excluding a 9 point stinker against Phoenix, Curry has scored 20+ in 5 of his last 6 games.\u00a0 Kidd is having a typical Jason Kidd season, and his minutes are down slightly (33 per game this year) from years’ past.\u00a0 His shooting has been worse than in recent years, only shooting 36% from the floor and 35.7% from three.\u00a0 Other than the slightly off shooting, though, it has been business as usual for Kidd.\u00a0 Last game against Sacramento he was a dismal 2 of 10 from the floor, though Dallas still eeked out a 2 point win in that game.
\n
\nPower Forward – David Lee vs. Dirk Nowitzki<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Dirk Nowitzki remains one of the top players in the game and almost unarguably the best international player ever, he faces a formidable opponent tonight in David Lee.\u00a0 Lee made his first all star team last season, averaging better than 20 & 11 for the New York Knicks.\u00a0 His numbers are down drastically this year, as there are more scoring options in Golden State, but he is still scoring 14.6 a game while hauling in 10.0 boards a game.\u00a0 His shooting percentage is down below 50% for the first time in his 6 year NBA career.\u00a0 It goes without saying that Lee will have his hands full with Nowitzki, one of the best one on one players in the game.\u00a0 Dirk’s stats are right about at his career average, with 24.9 ppg and 7.7 rpg.\u00a0 His field goal percentage, however, is at a career high 55.3%, enabling him to maintain his\u00a0 scoring average of past years with slightly fewer shots.\u00a0 In his last two games, he is 23 of 33 from the floor, for a blistering 69%.\u00a0 David Lee, while not notoriously known as a good defender, does have the length to match up with Dirk and he will have to limit Dirk’s open jumpers and force him to put it on the floor, as Lee has superior quickness to Nowitzki.<\/p>\n

The game brings two opposing styles together and there will be a balance and counter balance of Golden State trying to push the pace while Dallas seeks to play a half court game.\u00a0 The Mavs have disposed of some quality opponents this year and Golden State is a poor road team (3-8).\u00a0 The Mavs will look to exploit that in obtaining their 10th consecutive win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Golden State Warriors AT Dallas Mavericks Tuesday, 12\/07\/2010 8:30 EST Opening Betting line:\u00a0 Dallas Mavericks -10 Current Betting line:\u00a0 Dallas Mavericks -9 Current Total: Undefined Golden State enters tonight’s game with an 8-12 record and has struggled mightly since starting the season with a 4-1 record.\u00a0 They have lost their last three games and won […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[19,1011],"class_list":["post-11312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-golden-state-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11312"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11314,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11312\/revisions\/11314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}