Dallas Mavericks vs Houston Rockets Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 01/31/26

The Mavs lost a nailbiter against the Charlotte Hornets last time out, falling for the 3rd consecutive game. Rookie sensation Cooper Flagg did his best to keep his team afloat by scoring 49 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, but even that wasn’t enough for the injury riddled Mavericks. Saturday sees them take on a familiar foe in the Houston Rockets. These two teams have played each other 3 times already this season, with two of those games being decided by single digits. Dallas did come out on top in one of them back in early December, that’ll fill them with optimism ahead of Saturday’s game at Toyota Center.

Defense is what has kept the Rockets in the top 4 of the Western Conference for most of the season so far. We saw the full extent of it in their last game as they held the Atlanta Hawks to just 86 points in a blowout win on the road. Returning home will be a confidence boost for KD and co., as they are one of the most consistent home teams in the NBA with only 4 losses in 20 games so far. However, from a betting standpoint they’ve caused a lot of headaches covering the spread just 4 times in 15 games. The loss of Steven Adams is huge, he was their 2nd leading rebounder behind Sengun, so I’m curious to see how they adapt to life without him.

This Dallas defense hasn’t been confidence inspiring at all lately, but they’ve been able to stay in games despite that. I do not anticipate a high scoring game here, the last time these two met we saw only 212 points between them and the game was decided by just 8 points. After seeing Flagg drop 49 points on the Hornets, I think he’ll follow it up with another solid game vs Houston and keep the Mavs somewhat in the game. I’m backing Dallas to cover for the 6th time in 8 games.

Dallas Mavericks vs Houston Rockets Predictions: Mavericks +11 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.