NBA Betting News and Notes
By Steve Merril
Covers.com
Dallas Mavericks
The defending NBA champs have had a tumultuous season. Going into their Tuesday night home game against the Kings, the Mavericks were just five games over .500 (31-26) with a losing record on the road at 11-16. Dallas has been playing without point guard Jason Kidd; he has missed four games with a strained right groin muscle.
The Mavericks lost three of those four games without Kidd on the court, with their lone ATS win came in a 95-85 win over Memphis as a 5.5-point favorite. Dallas does have some good news though as Kidd is slated to return to the lineup against Sacramento.
“He's not going to play a full menu of minutes,” head coach Rick Carlisle said. “It's pretty obvious what he means to us. In his absence, this past week, it's been very tough. So getting him back is very important.”
On a side note, the Mavericks have decided to part ways with Lamar Odom. He averaged 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 20.5 minutes per game in his 50 games as a Maverick. Those are all career-low numbers.
Denver Nuggets
One of the deepest teams in the NBA has been severely hampered by injuries all season. The Nuggets suffered another injury on Monday night when Al Harrington left the Nuggets 123-84 win over the Warriors in the third quarter with a torn meniscus in his knee.
His loss would be a major blow to the Nuggets if he’s out for an extended time. Harrington has been one of the team’s best players and leaders all season long. He has played in all 57 games this season while averaging 14.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Denver has been hit or miss against the spread lately as the Nuggets are just 5-5 ATS over their last 10 games.
The Nuggets did get Danilo Gallinari (15.2 ppg) back on Monday night after he missed the previous 10 games with a thumb injury. Head coach George Karl just wants his team to play fundamental basketball.
“My team tries to be spectacular,” Karl said. “They try to be fancy, they try to be cute. Just play solid, smart basketball and you'll win a lot of basketball games. We need to get more comfortable with solid, not spectacular.”
Orlando Magic
This team has been plagued with more distractions recently as word leaked out that Dwight Howard wants head coach Stan Van Gundy fired. Orlando has been dealing with the uncertainly of Howard’s future all season, and things got worse at a shootaround press conference when Van Gundy revealed what he was told Howard said.
“It was weird,” Jameer Nelson said of the situation. “There is nothing you can do about it. It’s done and over with. The rest of the guys have moved on.”
Orlando was mired in a five-game losing streak when this news broke, but the Magic had won two straight games going into their Tuesday night game at Washington. Orlando went 2-0 ATS in those two games while crushing the pointspread by a whopping 34.5 points.
Howard is dealing with back spasms, and he missed Orlando’s 30-point win over the Pistons on Monday night and it will be interesting to see if the Magic play with the same purpose once he returns to the lineup.
Utah Jazz
The Jazz received some bad news on Monday afternoon - point guard Earl Watson needs surgery to repair a torn medial meniscus in his right knee. Watson is the inspirational backbone of the team's second unit, and his loss is a major blow to the Jazz.
Utah will be without another key contributor as C.J. Miles will be sidelined for at least a week with a moderate strain of his left calf.
“They've been great for us all year,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. “We're really going to miss them.”
With Watson and Miles out, Utah becomes an extremely thin team at guard and wing because the Jazz are already missing Raja Bell and Josh Howard. In Utah’s win over the Spurs on Monday night, forward Jeremy Evans sprained his right ankle and his availability on their upcoming 3-game road trip is unknown.
Utah is just 2-4 SU and 2-3-1 ATS in their last six road games. Overall, the Jazz are just 4-6 SU and 3-6-1 ATS over their last 10 ballgames heading into Wednesday night's road game at Houston.