Mavericks Have Been Rolling When at Full Strength

When Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis have been in the lineup, Dallas (24-21 SU, 21-24 ATS) has won 12 of its last 15 games. Both are likely to suit up for the Mavs when they visit Boston (23-24, 22-25), which has lost seven of its last 11. Dallas opened as a 1-point road favorite.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

Oddsmakers waited until Wednesday morning to post a line due to the questionable status of Jaylen Brown, who missed Boston’s last game with a hip contusion. Dallas was a 2.5-point home underdog when the Mavs beat Boston 110-107 last month on a last-second Doncic three-pointer.

Dallas News & Notes

All it took for Dallas to snap a two-game losing streak Monday was to have Doncic and Porzingis return to the lineup. The Mavs’ star duo combined to score 45 points in just 27 minutes apiece, helping Dallas roll to a 127-106 win in Oklahoma City. Dallas shot 55 percent from the floor and recorded 30 assists, two short of the team high on the season.

Doncic had missed Dallas’ previous two games with a sore back and an illness, while Porzingis sat out Saturday’s loss against New Orleans to rest his right knee. Although Dallas is just 5-5 SU in its last 10 games, the Mavericks have won 12 of their last 15 games in which Doncic and Porzingis have both suited up, and eight of their last 10 when Doncic has been on the floor.

One thing that has been consistent lately regardless of Doncic and Porzingis’ availability is the Mavericks’ improvement on defense. Dallas has held eight of its last nine opponents below its season average of 110.9 points allowed, going UNDER in six of those nine contests and 12 of its last 17.

Boston News & Notes

GM Danny Ainge hoped the trade deadline acquisitions of Evan Fournier, Mo Wagner and Luke Kornet would give his struggling team a jolt, but that wasn’t the case when the trio made their home debut with the Celtics on Monday.

Some of that was due to Fournier himself, as the swingman missed all 10 of his field-goal attempts to draw some boos from the small crowd in attendance, but he didn’t have much help other than 34 points from Jayson Tatum as the Celtics fell to 4-7 SU in their last 11 games.

Boston, which was without Jaylen Brown in its 115-109 loss to New Orleans, shot just 41.5 percent from the floor as a team and trailed by 17 points in the fourth quarter before making things close with a late 13-0 run. The Celtics also went on a huge fourth-quarter run in their previous outing, using a 19-0 spurt to rally for a 111-94 win Saturday in Oklahoma City.

While Fournier struggled badly in his Boston debut after missing the Celtics’ previous two games due to a false positive COVID-19 test, Kornet’s career in Beantown is off to a promising start. The young center scored 10 points — including a pair of three-pointers — and added four rebounds in 13 minutes vs the Pelicans and has hit seven of his 11 field-goal attempts in two games for Boston.

Betting Pick: Mavericks -1

Boston has only five victories over teams with winning records since the start of February and is playing for the 10th time in 16 days.