The Dallas Mavericks (42-26) head to Barclays Center Wednesday to play the Brooklyn Nets (36-33) at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN). Below, we look at the Mavericks vs. Nets odds and lines, and make our expert NBA picks, predictions and bets.
Dallas has won seven of its last eight games — 5-2-1 against the spread (ATS) — which includes back-to-back road wins at the Houston Rockets Friday (113-110) and Boston Celtics Sunday (95-92).
Brooklyn won its fourth straight game Tuesday after crushing the Magic 150-108 in Orlando as Nets SG Kyrie Irving scored 60 points on 20-for-31 shooting. However, as per the New York City COVID-vaccine mandate, Kyrie will not be playing in Brooklyn Wednesday.
The Nets beat the Mavs 102-99 in Dallas, covering as 1.5-point road favorites in their first meeting Dec. 7.
- Money line (ML): Mavericks -150 (bet $150 to win $100) | Nets +122 (bet $100 to win $122)
- Against the spread: Mavericks -2.5 (-120) | Nets +2.5 (-105)
- Over/Under (O/U): 221.5 (O: -107 | U: -115)
Mavericks at Nets key injuries
Mavericks
- None
Nets (not yet submitted)
- SG Seth Curry (ankle) questionable
- PG Kyrie Irving (ineligible to play) out
- PG Ben Simmons (reconditioning) out
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Mavericks at Nets odds, lines, picks and predictions
Prediction
Mavericks 107, Nets 102
Money line
BET MAVERICKS (-150), all the way up to -170 before laying the points with Dallas instead.
Brooklyn ranks 21st in defensive rating and Dallas performs well and is profitable against teams in the bottom-10 of defensive efficiency.
The Mavs are 15-7 SU versus bottom-10 defenses with a plus-10.1 adjusted net rating (ranked seventh) and a plus-3.5 ATS margin (ranked third), according to CleaningTheGlass.com (CTG).
Dallas is sixth in defensive rating and Brooklyn is 8-15 SU versus top-10 defenses with a minus-3.7 adjusted net rating (ranked 15th) and minus-3.1 ATS margin (ranked 22nd), per CTG.
This is a also way better spot for the Mavs who are 12-3 SU as road favorites (plus-9.5 margin of victory) whereas the Nets are 2-5 SU as home underdogs (minus-11.0 margin of victory) and 2-9 SU in the second of a back-to-back (minus-6.5 margin of victory).
The MAVERICKS MONEY LINE (-150) is my favorite wager in this contest.