NBA Betting Picks: Houston Rockets vs. Dallas Mavericks

The NBA season has started with a bang, and on Friday, there are six more matches to be played. It feels like March Madness with basketball on TV for the whole day, but you could say we deserve this after not having NBA games for more than four months. On Friday, we will have a Texas showdown with the Houston Rockets going against the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks are currently 2-point favorites with a 230.5 over/under, which is the highest.

Key Injuries:-

Houston Rockets

• Russell Westbrook(in quarantine, probable to play)

• Eric Gordon(ankle, out of the game)

• Austin Rivers(personal, out of the game)

• Thabo Sefolosha(personal, out of the game)

• DeMarre Carroll(hamstring injury, probable to play)

Dallas Mavericks

• Marcus Kidd-Gilchrist(out of the game)

• Courtney Lee(calf, out of the game)

• Seth Curry(ankle, probable to play)

• Dwight Powell(Achilles, out of the game)

• Jalen Brunson(shoulder, out of the game)

• Willie Cauley-Stein(personal, out of the game)

• Dorian Finney-Smith(hip, probable to play)

Houston’s Two-Headed Monster

This game has no shortage of star power between James Harden, Luka Doncic, Russell Westbrook, and Kristaps Porzingis. Harden and Westbrook have won two last league MVP awards, and by the season was shut down in March, they had started to gel. James Harden is leading the NBA with an average of 34.4 points per game. With his closest challenger, Bradley Beal, not playing for the Wizards, Harden has the scoring title wrapped up. This will be the third consecutive year in which Harden has led the league in scoring. If he achieves this, he will be the first player since Kevin Durant(2009-12) to get a three-peat. Whether the Houston Rockets can compete for the title depends on Westbrook and Harden.

The Rockets have gone all-in after trading Clint Capela at the deadline which means PJ Tucker has to play most of the center minutes, and Robert Convington has to add spacing and defense on the wing. That defense should come handy in the Western Conference during play-off time. We will have to wait and see how Houston’s small lineups stack up.

Kristaps Porzingis Could Feast

Even though Luka Doncic is the Mavericks’ headliner, we cannot overlook Porzingis. Houston will have a tough time containing the 7’3’ man who has posted averages of 19.2 points in his first campaign with the Dallas Mavericks. In their most recent meeting against the Rockets, Porzingis put 35 points on the board. The Rockets were forced to start Tucker at the center due to the injury to Capela.

Dallas is the only team that has been more prolific offensively than Houston. The Mavericks have scored 113.8 points per 100 possessions, while the Rockets have scored 111 points per 100 possessions.

Mavericks Have an Incomplete Roster

The Dallas team will be short in-depth as both Dwight Powell and Jalen Brunson have been ruled out of the season because of Achilles and shoulder injuries. Courtney Lee will also be unavailable for the rest of the year with a calf injury he suffered during the hiatus. Willie Cauley-Stein opted out of the restart due to the birth of his son. 

The Dallas Mavericks currently have only 14 players available after they signed Trey Burke from the draft. Still, a team led by Doncic and Porzingis can be competitive against any team and easily beat the odds.

Houston Rockets vs Dallas Mavericks Pick

With a couple of high-octane offenses going toe-to-toe, we can safely expect that plenty of points will be scored in the game. Under normal circumstances, we could have predicted that 240 will be composed, but the oddsmakers are having to do some guesswork now that the teams will be playing in empty arenas.

So the over/under of 230.5 is lower than what we would have expected initially. Even though the new circumstances will be a challenge for the players, we can still expect a great high-scoring game between the two. No other team in the NBA can score as well as the Rockets, and Mavericks do. Both have nearly equal chances to steal the game. This will be their meeting this season. They combined 260 points in their first match back in November and 249 points in their next game when they met in January. 

If Dallas wants to pick up the victory, then Boban Marjanovic needs to be a significant contributor against Houston’s small ball.

Prediction: Houston Rockets(due to their depth and the form of Harden and Westbrook).