Frank Lorenzo
Dallas Mavericks at Golden State Warriors (-16, 214.5 o/u)
It’s been 365 days since the Golden State Warriors (41-4, 21-0 Home) lost a regular season home game; tonight, the Dallas Mavericks (26-21, 13-13 Away) will look to do the near-impossible and knock off Steph Curry at ORACLE Arena (10:30 PM Eastern).
The Warriors are coming off an impressive week, even by their insanely high standards. In their last four, they stomped on some of the top teams in the NBA, crushing the Cavaliers (132-98), Bulls (125-94), Pacers (122-110), and Spurs (120-90).
Their victory over the Spurs – the second-best team in the league – saw Curry going 6 of 9 from three-point land and finish with 37 points in just 28 minutes. Power forward Draymond Green only had 11 points on the night, but he also added nine rebounds and six assists, and the Warriors were +29 when he was on the floor.
Perhaps the scariest part is that the team still thinks it has room to improve.
“[W]e’re 41-4 … a great start but we’re nowhere near where I know we’re going to get and that’s encouraging,” Green said to the Associated Press.
The Mavericks bounced back from a mine two-game slide by beating the Los Angeles Lakers, 92-90, last night. Leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki had an off night, going just 5 of 14 from the floor, but he nailed the game winner – a fade-away jumper over Julius Randle – with two seconds on the clock.
The Mavs currently sit sixth in the Western Conference, just half a game back of fifth-place Memphis. But they’re a full 13 games behind division-leading San Antonio and, though they’re well above .500, are actually being outscored on average (101 points per game versus 101.2 points against per game).
Look for the Warriors, who are are 4-1 ATS in their last five games as a favorite of 11.0 or greater, to run Dallas (0-6 ATS in the last six games as a road underdog of 11.0 or greater) and its subpar defense out of town tonight.
Pick: Warriors -16.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
