{"id":11531,"date":"2010-12-15T09:49:09","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T14:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11531"},"modified":"2010-12-15T09:49:09","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T14:49:09","slug":"portland-trail-blazers-at-dallas-mavericks-pro-basketball-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/portland-trail-blazers-at-dallas-mavericks-pro-basketball-betting-preview-11531\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Trail Blazers at Dallas Mavericks Pro Basketball Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland Trail Blazers at Dallas Mavericks
\nWednesday, 12\/15\/10, 9:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Dallas -7
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Dallas -7
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 188
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 185<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki has been named the Western Conference Player of the Week in two of the last three weeks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Portland\u2019s offense has flown south for the winter in the past two games, managing to score just 78 and 73 points against San Antonio and Memphis respectively.\u00a0 \u201cThe starting five, those guys are gassed,\u201d said coach Nate McMillan.\u00a0 \u201cThey have played some heavy minutes.\u00a0 We need the bench to give us a breather.\u201d\u00a0 The reserves were ineffective for a third straight game on this road trip versus the Grizzlies last time out, combining for 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting.\u00a0 All the blame can\u2019t be squarely placed on the bench, as All-Star guard Brandon Roy has been bothered by a left knee injury, causing him to shoot 31.9 percent from the floor in his last six games.\u00a0 Portland is 11-11 ATS on the year and 0-4 ATS versus Southwest Division opponents.\u00a0 The team is currently a seven-point underdog on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Blazers captured last season\u2019s series, 3-1, marking their first series win against Dallas since the 1998-99 season.\u00a0 Last year, Portland won twice in Dallas for the first time since the aforementioned season, as the Mavericks had captured 18 of the previous games against the Trail Blazers before last season.\u00a0 In the four meetings last year, the Trail Blazers limited the Mavericks to just 41.4 percent shooting from the floor, while hitting at a 45.3 percent clip themselves.\u00a0 The offensive unit is managing to score just 91.9 points on the road this season.<\/p>\n

Dallas suffered a disappointing 103-99 defeat to Milwaukee on Sunday in a game that snapped its 12-game winning streak.\u00a0 The Mavericks assumed a comfortable 20-point second-quarter lead before dropping their first game since November 19.\u00a0 \u201cThis kind of slippage we\u2019ve seen all too often,\u201d coach Rick Carlisle stated.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve got to coach harder, the players have got to be more conscientious.\u201d\u00a0 The squad is 19-5 overall on the season and posted a 11-4 home record, including a 5-2 mark versus Western Conference opponents.\u00a0 Before dropping two games in the series at home versus Portland last year, the squad had won 11 consecutive games over tonight\u2019s opponent at the American Airlines Center.\u00a0 Dallas is 5-1 ATS versus Northwest Division teams.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks used their 12-game winning streak to help propel themselves to their best start since the 2002-03 season (21-3).\u00a0 All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki has been leading the offensive attack on a nightly basis, shooting 56.4 percent from the field this season.\u00a0 The highest percentage he\u2019s ever shot in a season was 50.2 percent in 2006-07.\u00a0 He has been named the Western Conference Player of the Week in two of the last three weeks.\u00a0 Some NBA experts have been questioning if this squad is the NBA\u2019s best thus far in 2010-11.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s not even on our mind,\u201d said guard Jason Terry.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s so far from where we\u2019re trying to go right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Blazers are 0-5-1 ATS versus the Southwest Division, while the Mavericks are 20-8-2 ATS against the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

The NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports are enjoying a sensational start and can\u2019t wait for you to join them today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland Trail Blazers at Dallas Mavericks Wednesday, 12\/15\/10, 9:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Dallas -7 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Dallas -7 Opening Total:\u00a0 188 Current Total:\u00a0 185 Portland\u2019s offense has flown south for the winter in the past two games, managing to score just 78 and 73 points against San Antonio and Memphis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[3920,1366,19,20,830,3684],"class_list":["post-11531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-american-airlines-center","tag-brandon-roy","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dirk-nowitzki","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-rick-carlisle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11532,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions\/11532"}],"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=11531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}