NBA Preview: Nuggets vs. Mavericks Predictions

Written by Jake Thompson
Wednesday, 15 February 2012 16:50

It’s time to make predictions as we preview Wednesday’s NBA game between the Nuggets and the Mavericks.

The Denver Nuggets (17-12) will hit the road on Wednesday to take on the Dallas Mavericks (18-11), and start time in this NBA game is set for 8:30 PM ET.  Bovada Sportsbook has the NBA betting odds favoring the home-team Mavericks at -7 with a total of 198.

Denver has covered the odds in 9 of their last 10 trips to Dallas and they have also done so in 16 of the last 22 head-to-head meetings.  The Mavericks were 105-95 winners as a 1-point road underdog in the last meeting this year, while the Nuggets won 115-93 as 4.5-point road underdogs a day before Christmas earlier this season.  The road team has now won outright in 5 of the last 6 games in this series, while the over has won in 4 straight.

The Nuggets have done a great job of finding quality shots this season and their offense is extremely difficult to stop whether they are home or away.  Denver will be going up against a Dallas defense that allows just 91.6 points per game on 41.9% shooting, so something will have to give.  I believe that the Mavericks can keep the Nuggets from going crazy, but they are also going to have to score some points of their own to keep up in this game.

Dallas has not always looked smooth offensively this season but they’ve turned it on recently and you can tell their offense is getting into midseason form.  The Nuggets don’t play a ton of defense and won’t be helped out by the fact that center Nene is listed as doubtful for Wednesday’s game with a calf strain.  The Mavericks have issues rebounding the ball and his absence will make it harder for Denver to take advantage of that weakness.

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Two weeks ago my predictions would be on the Nuggets to vie for the upset here, but I think they could get beaten badly now that Dallas has started to shoot the ball like they are capable of.  The Mavericks will play some tremendous defense on their home court and I don’t think they’ll have any trouble getting open looks on the other end.  Make your predictions on the Mavericks covering this spread without too many problems.  I’d also take a close look at betting on the over because I feel the total is set a few points too low.

Nuggets vs. Mavericks Predictions:

Nuggets 94

Mavericks 107