Five teams are still fighting for four spots in the Western Conference playoffs with just a handful of games to go, and that's why Wednesday's clash between the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks is one of the most important of the week.
You'll find all of the NBA odds at BookMaker.eu for this and every game of the season.
SCHEDULING
Both of these clubs will be well-rested for this one, so live bettors won't have to worry about a scheduling advantage one way or the other. Both teams played on Sunday night and won't play again until meeting each other on Wednesday.
Houston is in the midst of a back-to-back, though. The Rockets will play the Suns on Thursday night.
KEY MATCHUP
With Dwight Howard basically a waste of space on the court at the moment, the Rockets have started to embrace a smaller lineup, one which puts Donatas Motiejunas at the five and Trevor Ariza at the four. When that happens, all of the bigs are forced to either come off the court or follow those men to the outside, and that's creating a ton of driving lanes for James Harden.
Harden had himself a game against the Thunder on Sunday, scoring 41 points with nine assists. He's really taking this team over right now, and he's doing it as the de facto point guard, especially late in the shot clock.
To say that the Mavericks have to do a better job on Harden is an understatement. His three games this year?
25 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds
25 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds
23 points, 10 assists, 15 rebounds
Wesley Matthews is the man most likely to be matched up with Harden, and thus far this year, he just hasn't had the answers for "The Beard."
KEY STATS & TRENDS
The Rockets haven't generally been kind to bettors this year at 34-43 ATS, but they've surely gotten the job done time and time again for live bettors. They've come back 21 times now from fourth quarter deficits to win games, the most in the NBA.
The lesson for live betting here? The game isn't over until it's really over with Houston, especially with the way it can fill up the stat sheet. Don't believe us? Just ask Oklahoma City, which allowed 38 in the fourth to the Rockets on Sunday in defeat.
Dallas has won its last four games and has covered three of the four, and the common thread in each of the victories is the fact that the pace has really slowed down. After giving up 128 to Golden State and 133 to Sacramento, the Mavs have really done a nice job, allowing no more than 89 to any team on this stretch.
That said, remember that Dallas played against Denver, New York, Detroit and Minnesota, and this game is going to be the toughest of the bunch even though it's at home.
The Mavericks are still killing live bettors with their poor shooting percentage of just 44.5 percent this year. They've gotten that cleaned up nicely over the last few games, but they're still not strong enough offensively to keep up in a game like this which could get a little out of hand in terms of the tempo.
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