Dallas Mavericks at Golden State Warriors

Betting Odds

Dallas (53-22, 39-34-2 ATS) was enjoying a five-game winning streak when it visited the Lakers on Thursday, but the Mavs were crushed 110-82. Dallas blew the spread, ending a three-game winning streak on NBA.

The loss is especially concerning for the future. Dallas’ past six wins have come against scrubs and bottom-feeders; the club hasn’t beaten a legitimate playoff team since winning 127-109 against New York on March 10. Even that’s debatable, since the Knicks were struggling so badly. If you don’t believe in New York as a quality victory, you’d have to go back to Feb. 2 for a decent Mavericks win—a 101-97 victory over Boston. At least the Mavs face lowly Golden State on Saturday.

Against the scrubs, Dallas has been using a very impressive defense to take care of business. The Mavericks gave up just 85.8 points per game during their winning streak, so letting the Lakers carve up 110 points on 44 percent shooting was disappointing.

It’s not as if the offense exactly showed up against Los Angeles, though. Dirk Nowitzki scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, but he was the only starter to score in double figures. Jason Kidd, Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion and Roddy Beaubois combined for just 27 points.

Golden State (32-44, 37-39 ATS) is just 2-8 in its past 10 games, including back-to-back losses. Although the Warriors are 2-2 in their past four games against the spread, those are the only two covers in the past 10 games. They lost 110-91 to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.

Horrible, horrible defense is absolutely killing Golden State. The Warriors have allowed 12 straight opponents to score 100-plus points. Over its last eight losses, Golden State is getting crushed for a ridiculous 114.6 points per game.

With the defense playing so awful, the Warriors rely on a high-octane offense to scrape out the occasional victory. Injuries and poor play might make the difficult as the regular season draws to a close. Monta Ellis sprained his ankle against the Grizzlies on Wednesday, and the team’s leading scorer (24.1 points per game) could miss the remainder of the season. Throw in the continuing erratic and disappointing play of Stephen Curry—he missed 12 of his 14 shots against Memphis, finishing with six points—and there’s not much positive to look at on Golden State right now.

Dallas has won eight of its past 10 games against Golden State, including a 6-4 run against the spread. They’ve met three times this year, with Dallas winning all three and covering the past two. The total went under in Dallas’ 101-73 win over the Warriors last week, though the first two games went over. Bodog has set the total for Saturday’s game at 212 points.

Point Spread Pick

The Mavericks have dominated this series in the last two years winning 6 straight and going 4-2 versus the number. I'm going to buck that trend and play on the Warriors. Golden State played Dallas tough at home back on March 16th only to run out of gas real late to lose by 6. The Warriors do play well at home, winning 23 of their 37 games this season and are 4-1 L5.
Take the Golden State +5.5 at 5Dimes.com and get reduced juice every day!