NBA: Dallas Mavericks VS Portland Trail Blazers Pick and Predictions 01/14/2023

Game: 10:00 PM ET,  Saturday, January 14th, 2023

Venue: Moda Center at the Rose garden, Portland, Oregon

TV:  NBA League Pass

BetMGM:  Point Spread:  Blazers -1.5, O/U 226.5

PointsBet: Point Spread: Blazers -1.5, O/U 226.5

Fanduel: Point Spread: Blazers -1.5, O/U 226.5

Mavericks: 24-19, 4th place Western Conference

Trail Blazers: 19-22, 11th place Western Conference

A Western Conference battle of an MVP candidate and the sneakily best PG in the league (if he plays).  The Dallas Mavericks had a terrible chill in Crypto.com Arena against the Lakers… double overtime!! Luka gutted it out and the Mavs got the win!  The Mavs are the only team in this matchup where anything like that matters. The Mavs have a chance for postseason glory if only they could find a proper rotation AROUND MVP candidate Luka Doncic who happens to be amazing.  On the Trail Blazers there is also an amazing player in PG Damion Lilliard.. A guy so great that he pops up to even remind us that his team is even in the league.  Why?  His team is not good.  The Hall of Fame will welcome DFamian into their ranks while wondering why he didnt at some point  demand a trade to a contender.  Why didn’t he… Damian loves the biggest possible paychecks and being near where he grew up.  So this is a question of “the rest of the roster”... and all the answers are Mavericks.  The Great Betting Opportunity here is whether or not the Blazers could beat the spread.

The Dallas Mavericks have won 7 of their last 10 games but have only won 2 of the last five.  The bumpy roads are directly attributed to a team in search of a 2nd option on the floor.  If Luka misses a game… who should be the best?... f Luka plays who should be the 2nd best.  Dallas has never answered these questions…. But the future is bright if the answer is Christian Wood.  Christian recently broke into the heavy rotation and has delivered.  In their last game the Mavs won 119-115 in double overtime against the Los Angeles Lakers.. Which was also a win ATS (as predicted in this column)... In the win Luka got 35 points, 14 rebounds, and 13 assists in what has top be the best triple double (because it directly got the win) of the season.  Christian Wood got 24, Tim Hardaway Jr got 22… and the Mavs snuck a win in LA.

The Portland Trail Blazers are on a terrible 5-game losing streak.  They have only won 2 of their last 10 games.  They are terrible and they briefly were great in the first 20 games of the season.  The front office may have pulled the plug on anything other than trying to win the NBA Draft Lottery… someone should tell Damian Lilliard.  In their last game they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 119-113 which was also a loss ATS.  In fact the team has lost 5 games in a row ATS… and are only 2-8 AST in the last 10 games. Why? Because they are terrible and waiting for the draft to get better. BTW Damian Lillard got 50 points in the loss.

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DAL: 24-19, 15-26-2 ATS, 24-19 O/U, 8-13 on the road.

POR: 19-22, 22-19 ATS, 17-23-1 O/U,. 9-8 in home games.

The Mavs are 20th in scoring with 112.3 points per game, 30th in rebounds with 39.2 per game, 17th in AST/TO ratio with 1.7, 23rd in blocks per game with 4.2 per game.

The Blazers are 23rd in scoring with 112.1 points per game, 17rth in rebounds with 43.2 per game, 28th in AST/TO ratio with 1.5, and 24th in blocks with 4.2 per game.

Our prediction for Saturday, January 14th is…. Mavericks 118 - Blazers 99’

Bet on the Mavs.  Bet on the Mavs.  Bet on the Mavs… after the Lakers double overtime game because LeBron got 24, 16, and 9… playing the Blazers will feel like a cakewalk. Plus the team will be in that funky Portland hotel with nothing to do but win again. The Mavs can sustain a big scoring night from Damian Liliard… and whatever the rest of the Blazers do will be ineffectual against the Mavs lineup.

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Dallas is 3-1 ATS versus the Blazers in Portland the last 3 seasons.

Dallas is  373-291 as a road underdog since 1996.

Portland is 1-3 ATS when the line is +3 to -3 this season.

Mavs: PG Luka Doncic.  Luka is low speed and low energy.. Bug he does everything great on the court,  That low energy off the court somehow saves the awesomeness for on the court.  I would always believe he should be an MVP candidate… I also will always believe that he won’t win the big one because no player can properly be evaluated while playing with Luka.

Blazers: PG Damian Lilliard.  Damian is coming off a 50 point game that his team lost. Maybe he should take a break so his team could gain ping pong balls in the draft… or maybe he should ask for a trade to a contender that needs a PG… What?  All the contenders have good point guards… such is life.

Mavs: Jason “awful person… I know I’ve met him” Kidd

Blazers: Chauncey “awesome person… I know I've met him” Billups