Los Angeles Lakers vs Dallas Mavericks betting tips and predictions for Thursday’s NBA game on TNT. It’s a marquee match-up at crypto.com Arena as the two biggest stars in the NBA clash with LeBron James on one side and Luka Doncic on the other. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Los Angeles Lakers
This will actually be the 2nd meeting of the season between the Lakers and Mavs, with the first one being on Christmas Day. The Lakers came up short 124-115 in that game, despite a strong start and an 11-point lead at the half. In the 3rd quarter they just fell apart defensively allowing 51 points, that simply cannot happen against a team like the Mavericks.
LeBron James ended that game with 38 points, he is getting closer and close to surpassing the all-time scoring record held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. James probably doesn’t care too much about that though, his main focus is dragging this team to the postseason, but at the moment they are only 12th in the standings so every game matters. James is expected to return to the line-up as he took the night off at Denver, his Lakers are 4-1 SU in their last 5 home games.
Dallas Mavericks
Luka’s Mavs are also on a solid run of 8 wins in their last 11 games. Their head-to-head record vs the Lakers is also impressive at 5-1 SU in the last 6 games, plus Dallas also covered the spread in all 6 of those games. Luka Doncic is the frontrunner for MVP honors at the moment averaging 33.3 points on close to 50% shooting, plus 8.7 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game, leading his Mavs in almost every meaningful statistical category.
Whether or not that’s good for a team is up for debate, but the Mavs find themselves 4th in the West standings at the moment, despite losing 3 of their last 4 games. This is a good spot for them to end the losing streak, the last time they were in this building they pulled out a 109-104 victory back in March of 2022.
Russell Westbrook is bothered by a finger injury, Anthony Davis remains out, so it’ll be up to James to once again carry this team. I have a hard time believing he can beat a team like Dallas singlehandedly at this point of his career. Dallas is 1-0 SU vs LA this season, back them to cover once again.
Los Angeles Lakers vs Dallas Mavericks Predictions & Odds
As we’re already accustomed to seeing from the Lakers, their main objective tonight will be to push the tempo here. The slow paced Mavericks took the bait in the 1st meeting which ended with 239 points scored. LA contended for decent stretches of that game, but in the end they just didn’t have enough to compete with the much more deep Mavs roster. I’m also expecting a bounce back game from Luka Doncic, he thrives in these moments, in his last 2 games vs the Lakers he went over 30 points in both games.
Dallas ranks 6th in offensive efficiency this season, they area averaging 113.1 points per 100 possessions. Their three-point defense on the road has been a problem this season, with opponents knocking down 38.2% of shots from the perimeter. A team like the Lakers will surely know how to take advantage of that, I’d be shocked if we saw a low scoring game here. Back to the points.
