Miami Heat vs Dallas Mavericks Preview

Added on Apr 01, 2009 by sbworld in

It’s Eastern Conference versus Western Conference in the NBA as the Miami Heat (39-35) and Dallas Mavericks (44-30) get set to do battle in the state of Texas on Wednesday night.

These teams have met once this season with Dallas going into Miami and easily leaving with a 111-96 victory with the Mavericks getting the point spread cover with the line at Dallas -2. Dallas also won by 26 in Miami the previous season but only has a 5-4-1 record against the spread over the last 10 meetings with the Heat.

This time around the NBA odds favor the home-team Mavericks by 5 points at 5Dimes.com with an over/under betting total at 196.5 with both the Heat and the over moving half a point in their direction since the line opened.

Meetings between these teams have gone under the total in 4 of the last 6 meetings although both teams have been playing in quite a few “over” games lately. Dallas has gone over the total in 7 of their last 8 games and 13 of their last 17 games as the favorite while the Miami Heat have gone over the total in 10 of their last 13 games against the Western Conference. Miami has also gone over the total in 8 of their last 11 when coming off a single day or rest.

The only recent injury news with these teams has to do with Miami superstar guard Dwyane Wade and his dinged up hand. He hurt the hand in the Heat’s last game (a 95-101 home loss to the Orlando Magic) but it doesn’t appear to be serious and Wade is expected to play on Wednesday night.

Dallas scores more points, shoots better from the field, and shoots better from the free throw line which puts the offensive edge firmly in the Mavericks’ hands while Miami has shown better defensive numbers and wins the turnover battle which makes the Heat the better defensive team tonight. Dallas rebounds the ball better and has the better bench play while Miami shoots better from beyond the 3-point arc.

The Mavericks are playing slightly better basketball lately with 5 wins (and 5 point spread covers) over their last 10 compared to 4 wins (also with 5 point spread covers) for the Heat. Miami has gone under the total in 4 of their last 5 while Dallas has gone under in 5 of their last 6 although 2 of the last 3 home games have easily gone over.

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