Dallas Mavericks vs Utah Jazz betting tips and predictions for Saturday’s NBA game on ESPN. The Mavericks and Jazz will close out the action in the NBA on Christmas Day as the two teams meet for the 1st time this season in Salt Lake City. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Dallas Mavericks
Mavs fans, and the entire NBA for that matter, have been dealt a huge blow ahead of this game after learning that Luka Doncic won’t be able to play as he continues to be in health and safety protocols. To make matters even worse, their 2nd best player Kristaps Porzingis is also struggling with a toe injury, so Dallas could be heavily shorthanded tonight. They’ve dropped 3 of their last 4 games, with their only win coming at home against a mediocre Minnesota Timberwolves team. When playing in the underdog role, the Mavericks have really struggled and have just 3 wins in 15 such games this season. Against the Jazz they only have 3 wins in the last 13 meetings and in their last 10 visits to Salt Lake City they’ve gone just 1-9 SU.
Utah Jazz
Utah is one of the rare teams left in the NBA unaffected by the health and safety protocols. They’ve taken full advantage of that and are 10-2 SU in their last 12 games, however covering the spread has been a bit of an issue lately, mainly because bookmakers favor them by double digits in most of their home games. They enter tonight’s game after covering just once in their last 6 at home, the oddsmakers favor them by 12.5 points here. Donovan Mitchell is playing at an elite level, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets the player of the month award for December. Their last 3 wins have come by 12, 10 and 21 points, so there’s definitely reasons to pick them here against a very shorthanded Dallas team.
With so many players out, I just don’t see how the Mavericks can hang around in this game. Utah is traditionally the best home team in the NBA for the past couple of seasons now, they’ve beaten the Mavs in 9 of 10 at home and I expect more of the same tonight. Back the Jazz.
Utah Jazz – Dallas Mavericks Predictions & Odds
Jazz -12.5 Point Spread is available at -110 odds on bet365
In the last 10 meetings the O/U record is 5-5 for these two teams, while in the 3 most recent games it has gone 0-3 in favor of the under. Dallas in particular has struggled scoring in those 3 games averaging just 105.3 points per game, the Jazz average a slightly better at 113 points. The general trend in Mavs games recently has been the under with the bet landing 9 times in their last 11 games. They simply don’t have enough options on offense to reach even 100 points, the highest total in their previous 4 games is just 105 points. Currently they play the slowest tempo in the entire NBA averaging just 97.6 possessions per game, while the Jazz rank somewhere in the middle at 14th. As much as I like the Jazz here, I don’t see them scoring enough to push the total over. So let’s go with the under.
Under 214 Total Points is available at -110 odds on bet365
