{"id":32811,"date":"2014-01-29T18:51:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T23:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=32811"},"modified":"2014-01-29T18:51:18","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T23:51:18","slug":"nba-western-conference-odds-houston-rockets-at-dallas-mavericks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-western-conference-odds-houston-rockets-at-dallas-mavericks-32811\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Western Conference Odds: Houston Rockets at Dallas Mavericks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dirk-Nowitzki-mavericks\"<\/a>Houston at Dallas
\nTime: 8:30 PM ET, Jan 29, 2014
\nSpread: DAL -3.5
\nM\/L: DAL -165; HOU +145
\nTotal: 211<\/strong><\/p>\n

Betting odds courtesy of 5dimes<\/p>\n

The Dallas Mavericks are clinging to the eighth spot in the Western Conference and sit at 26-20 entering tonight’s contest against the Houston Rockets. NBA oddsmakers at 5dimes favor the home team Mavericks by 3.5-points.<\/p>\n

Dallas is coming off a 116-106 victory over the Detroit Pistons. Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win. Dirk is seeing just 32 minutes a night this season but still leads the Mavs in scoring with 21.2 points per game. Nowitzki’s PER is still 23.3, which is superb as well.<\/p>\n

Dirk’s scoring is augmented by the play of gunner Monta Ellis. Ellis came via free agency and played in Milwaukee last season. He’s averaging 19.7 points and 5.9 assists per game.<\/p>\n

The Mavs also have a cast of spare parts that have come together nicely: Jose Calderon is hitting the open threes; Vince Carter is aggressively seeking his shot; and Shawn Marion is still a top flight perimeter defender. The Mavs could benefit from another big body inside and should reasonably consider trading for the Rockets’ Omer Asik.<\/p>\n

Houston is seated fifth in the West at 30-17 and won 97-90 over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night (Jan 28). Dwight Howard had 23 points and 16 boards and Jeremy Lin dished out eight assists. James Harden sat out with a sore thumb, and the Rockets went small with their backcourt, playing Jeremy Lin alongside Patrick Beverley. Terrence Jones also stepped up, contributing 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting and grabbing nine rebounds.<\/p>\n

Jones has made big strides in year two and may be the future starter at the 4-spot for Houston. The Kentucky product is averaging 11.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.45 blocks this season, while posting a PER of 18.58.<\/p>\n

Jones’ biggest knock may be his inconsistency, but he’s shown he has good shooting range (though 28.6 percent isn’t a very good three-point mark) and athleticism and if he can add some bulk he should be a better defender against stronger power forwards. He’ll likely get plenty of opportunities to cover Nowitzki in this one, so that should be more than enough of a challenge for Jones.<\/p>\n

HOU Trends: 0-4 ATS in last 4 when opponent scores 100 or more in previous game; UNDER 3-0-1 in last 4 overall; OVER 4-0 in last 4 vs teams with winning SU records.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DAL Trends: OVER 13-2-2 in last 17 vs teams with winning road records; OVER 5-1 in last 6 following ATS win; 5-1 ATS in last 6 after allowing 100 or more in previous game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Head-to-head: Rockets 0-5 ATS in last 5 meetings in Dallas; OVER 4-1 in last 5 meetings; Rockets 9-24 ATS in last 33 meetings.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston at Dallas Time: 8:30 PM ET, Jan 29, 2014 Spread: DAL -3.5 M\/L: DAL -165; HOU +145 Total: 211 Betting odds courtesy of 5dimes The Dallas Mavericks are clinging to the eighth spot in the Western Conference and sit at 26-20 entering tonight’s contest against the Houston Rockets. NBA oddsmakers at 5dimes favor the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":15646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[19,831,7900,2189,7129,6624],"class_list":["post-32811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-houston-rockets","tag-nba-live-lines","tag-nba-odds","tag-nba-oddsmakers","tag-nba-picks-and-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32811","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=32811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32812,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32811\/revisions\/32812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}