Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks are going to be in Cleveland Sunday to play the defending Eastern Conference champions. Will the Mavs hurt Cleveland’s chances for a higher seed in the playoffs? Or will the Cavs add more to the already stacked list of Dallas losses?
With the NBA regular season drawing to a close, it might serve the Mavericks better if they would just lose all their remaining games to up their chances of getting that No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft. That said, Rick Carlisle is not the type of coach who would adhere to that, so expect the Mavericks to not volunteer themselves as sacrificial lambs to the Cavaliers. The Mavericks recently snapped a three-game losing skid on the road with a 103-97 win in Sacramento on Tuesday, and they will try to net their first back-to-back road wins in a long while this Sunday at Quicken Loans Arena, where Dallas is 4-1 ATS in its last five visits there. The Mavs, however, are just 9-27 SU in games away from home this season. If anything, they are slightly more efficient scoring the basketball on the road (44.9%) than at home (44.5%).
The Cavs are targeting a third-place finish in the Eastern Conference, and a win over the Mavericks should help them be in the hunt for a three-seed in the playoffs. Against the Mavericks, expect Cleveland to play better this Sunday than it did the first time the Cavs played Dallas this season. The Cavs beat Dallas on the road on Nov. 11, 111-104, when Cleveland’s chemistry was still a big issue. The Cavs shot just 43.2 percent from the field in that game with Kevin Love leading his team with 29 points and 15 rebounds. Love, however, could miss the Dallas game because of concussion-like symptoms he showed during last Tuesday’s loss to Miami. If that would be the case, then there’ll be added burden on the shoulders of LeBron James, who scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the previous meeting with the Mavs. Cleveland is 5-1 ATS in its last six games against the Mavericks.
