This is one of those situations where I'm considerably more interested in the circumstances surrounding the opponents than anything particularly extraordinary about any team I'm considering to back. Brooklyn is walking into an absolutely brutal scheduling spot and that's precisely why I'm looking at the Over. The Nets played in Atlanta on Saturday night before travelling to Dallas for Sunday's encounter with the Mavericks. That's a back-to-back spanning two time zones and considerable distance for an outfit that has already demonstrated considerable vulnerabilities on both sides of the basketball. Let's consider what that means defensively - the Nets have to maintain their defensive intensity through another 48 minutes with travel and fatigue thrown into the equation. Such is hardly an encouraging proposition. Dallas should have opportunities to exploit that situation, particularly as the game progresses into the later stages.
But here's what interests me. We're not being asked to clear an astronomical total. At 220.5, there's room for Dallas to do much of the heavy lifting while Brooklyn contributes enough offense to push this game beyond the number. Dallas put up 120 at home against Oklahoma City and 116 in the Big D against Houston. Those are some elite opponents. Against this Nets team in a nightmare travel spot, there is no reason why the Mavs can't put up similar numbers or better. If that be the case, we don't even need the Nets to go big here which makes it the best part of this wager. And if the Mavericks do get going, we can find ourselves in position to clear this Over easily.
Nets vs. Mavericks prediction: Over 220.5 (-108) available at time of publishing. Playable to Over 221.
