Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
The Portland Trail Blazers need to right the ship soon, as they’ve gone from a team firmly in the playoff race in the Western Conference to a team fighting for a play-in spot with the No. 11 seed.
Damian Lillard and company have lost seven of their last 10 games heading into Sunday’s matchup with the Dallas Mavericks.
Dallas has not been great on the road this season, winning just eight of its 22 games. The team has actually slipped behind the Sacramento Kings in the conference, but Dallas is still playing much better basketball than it did earlier in the season.
These two teams played on Saturday night, with Portland pulling off a 17-point win at home and holding Luka Doncic to just 15 points.
Tim Hardaway Jr. went down with an injury for Dallas in that game, so he may be out of this matchup, along with forward Christian Wood (listed as day-to-day).
Here’s a look at the latest odds and my best bet for this Western Conference matchup:
Mavericks vs. Trail Blazers odds, spread and total
Mavericks vs. Trail Blazers prediction and pick
It’s hard to trust Dallas in this spot with so many key players (Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Green, Wood, Hardaway Jr.) banged up, and Vegas has them listed as 6.5-point dogs in this game.
It makes sense, especially since the Blazers won big on Saturday night.
Portland comes into this game 7-5 against the spread as a home favorite, winning those games by an average margin of 8.8 points per game.
As long as the Blazers play Lillard, Anfernee Simons and most of their rotation players on a back-to-back, I like them to cover on the road.
Unfortunatley, Portland doesn’t have the luxury to sit players with how far it has slipped in the standings in the past few weeks.
The Mavs may also look to give Luka a rest since so many other players are banged up.
Either way, given Dallas’ road struggles this season, Portland is the way to go in this matchup.
Find Peter Dewey’s full betting record here.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
