Nets vs Mavs: Is this a LOCK alert or what?

Wednesday night in Dallas, the Mavericks play host to the New Jersey Nets in what we expect to be a dominating performance by one of the NBA’s hottest teams over the worst team in the Association.

Dallas has won 12 straight and the poor Nets look to be victim number 13. The last time the Mavericks lost was back on February 17, which is coincidentally one game after the team traded for Caron Butler DeShawn Stevenson and Brendan Haywood.

New Jersey Nets              +12
Dallas Mavericks               -12

The NBA Odds makers like the Mavericks chances of running their win streak to 13 games as the NBA betting line for the game favors the Dallas Mavericks by 12 points over the New Jersey Nets.

The addition of Caron Butler has given the Mavericks more options on offense and a player who doesn’t mind doing the dirty stuff and defending the opponents best players.  Haywood has given the Mavs another big man and has filled in place of an injured Erick Dampier since February 16 but the Mavs will be without Haywood Wednesday night.  The Mavs will be without three regulars, Jason Terry, Erick Dampier and Brendan Haywood.

The New Jersey Nets sit at 7-56 and it won’t get better Wednesday night, the Nets haven’t won in Dallas in a decade.  I don’t think we can use enough adjectives to describe how poorly the season has gone for the New Jersey Nets. The only things that could make it worse would be if the NBA denied Mikhail Prokhorov ownership approval or if they lost the lottery and dropped out of the top-three draft picks as Boston did back when Tim Duncan was up for grabs in the NBA Draft.

Despite their losing record, the Nets have been keeping their games relatively close, well close enough to cover the spread. The New Jersey Nets are 7-0-1 against the spread in their past 8 road games and 6-0 versus a home team with a winning record at home.  Bookies have had to raise the NBA betting line so much on the New Jersey Nets that the Nets have begun to turn into solid bets. The public knows the Nets are a bad team and blindly bets against them, these factors force bookmakers to over inflate their lines to protect themselves against the contrarian Nets action.  What this means for sharper bettors is very good value when betting on the New Jersey Nets.

In the game between the Nets and the Mavs, we can safely assume that the Dallas Mavericks will extend their winning streak to 13 games and it won’t be a close game but 12 points is too many points to give up, even for the Mavs against the Nets. I may hate myself in the Morning but I’m going to take the Nets to keep the game within 12 points.

NBA Betting Line: New Jersey Nets +12