Ja Morant and the young Memphis Grizzlies will look to continue their push to lock down the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference playoff race when they hit the road to take on Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in a matchup of NBA championship longshots on Friday night. With both ballclubs looking to make a statement in this one, let’s find out which team is offering the best value against their NBA Odds for the Grizzlies vs Mavericks.
Grizzlies vs Mavericks 2020 NBA Game Preview & Betting Odds
- When: Friday, March 6, 2020 at 8:30 PM ET
- Where: American Airlines Center
- TV: FSSE, FSSW
- Radio: TuneIn.com
- NBA Odds: Dallas -7.5 / Total: 226.5
🐻 > 🐴 📺: Watch on @GrizzliesOnFSSE 📻: Listen on @929espn 🏀: @dallasmavs ⏰: 7:30pm 👀 + 👂 Google Play: https://t.co/izmqkVxV23 iTunes: https://t.co/GPLZgfLdyC pic.twitter.com/wta6MtRn3K
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) March 6, 2020
Why Bet On Memphis at +7.5
The Grizzlies have won three straight after dropping their previous five games and come into this matchup off a 118-79 smackdown win over Brooklyn on Tuesday night as five players scored in double digits, led by reserve forward Josh Jackson’s team-high 19 points and backup point guard Tyus Jones’ 18 points. Now, the young Grizz are focused on reaching the postseason.
“I think it would mean a lot,” rookie point guard Ja Morant told reporters about the possibility of making the playoffs. “We’re a whole new team. We’re young. To make the playoffs again, I can’t tell you the last time they made the playoffs, but for us to make it would be special.”
The Grizzlies have limited their last three opponents to an average of just 85 points per game.
“One thing we talked about was trying to find our identity and what we’re good at and we all agreed that’s defense,” reserve forward Josh Jackson told reporters after the win over Brooklyn. “Every night, we know we’re facing tough opponents and guys who can score the ball really well but we feel like we have a really good defensive group and we’re going to rely on that every night.”
Offense:
- Points/G: 112.8
- Field Goal %: 46.9
- 3-Point %: 35.2
- Free Throw %: 76.6
- Rebounds/G: 46.6
Defense:
- Points/G: 113.7
- Field Goal %: 45.1
- 3-Point %: 36.4
- Free Throw %: 78.3
- Rebounds/G: 45.0
Memphis Grizzlies Betting Trends
- Grizzlies are 12-4 ATS in their last 16 games following a ATS win.
- Grizzlies are 12-5 ATS in their last 17 games following a straight up win.
- Grizzlies are 14-6-1 ATS in their last 21 games following a straight up win of more than 10 points.
- Grizzlies are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.
Why Bet On Dallas at -7.5
Dallas split their last four games but come into this matchup off a thrilling 127-123 overtime win over New Orleans on Tuesday that saw all-star forward Luka Doncic put up a stellar 30 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists to set a new franchise record for career triple-doubles (22). Power forward Kristaps Porzingis added 34 points and 12 rebounds in the win to top the 30-point mark for the fifth time in his last dozen appearances. Doncic is still battling a sore thumb, but doesn’t plan to miss any games moving forward.
“It hurts, but you’ve got to get through it,” Doncic said afterward. “You’re probably going to get hit every game, almost every game, so you’ve just got to fight through it.”
Seth Curry and Tim Hardaway Jr. added 21 and 18 points respectively to get past the desperate Pelicans in an evenly matched affair that saw no team outscore the other in any quarter by more than a basket until overtime.
Offense:
- Points/G: 116.6
- Field Goal %: 46.3
- 3-Point %: 37.0
- Free Throw %: 77.5
- Rebounds/G: 47.1
Defense:
- Points/G: 110.6
- Field Goal %: 45.2
- 3-Point %: 34.4
- Free Throw %: 75.9
- Rebounds/G: 45.4
Dallas Mavericks Betting Trends
- Mavericks are 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 games after scoring more than 125 points in their previous game.
- Mavericks are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as a favorite.
- Mavericks are 59-29-2 ATS in their last 90 games following a ATS loss.
Grizzlies vs Mavericks Expert Analysis and Prediction
While I really like the way Kristaps Porzingis has elevated his game recently and love Dallas’ high-scoring offense, I’ve also been quite impressed with the competitiveness that the Memphis Grizzlies have shown recently. More importantly, Dallas has been surprisingly mediocre in going an uninspiring 17-14 at home this season while Memphis has surprised in posting a solid 14-17 mark away from home. The Grizzlies have gone 12-4 ATS in their last 16 games following an ATS win and 12-5 ATS in their last 17 games following a straight up win while Dallas has gone an uninspiring 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games following a straight up win. I like Dallas to take care of business to get the win at home, but I’m going with the young Grizzlies o show up with a big-time effort to cover a point spread that looks just a bit too high for the Mavs to cover.
Pick: Dallas 115 Memphis 111
