Breaking news: Luka Doncic just announced his departure in…

It’s a massive game out West as the Phoenix Suns visit the Dallas Mavericks in the 3rd and final regular season meeting between the two teams.

Each team won a road game so far in those two games prior to this one, so it’ll be interesting to see if that trend continues here. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker both played in the All-Star game over the weekend, while Bradley Beal took advantage of the time off and had a procedure done on his broke nose which could sideline him for a bit. Although he’s already missed 25 games this season and the Suns are basically used to him not playing, they could still benefit from his presence on the court, especially on the offensive end. Both games against the Mavs this season were high scoring this season, so they might need to put up 130+ in order to win this game.

Dallas went into the break as one of the hottest teams in the NBA winning 6 games in a row. All but one of the 6 wins were by double-digits, Dallas also posted the 3rd highest Net Rating of 17.3 during the win streak. Doncic was the lone representative in Indianapolis this weekend, while the rest of the team took some time off to heal their injuries. Thankfully the 2nd biggest star on the team Kyrie Irving didn’t have any significant injury issues, he will look to get one over his former teammate Kevin Durant here. Dallas is 4-1 SU in their last 5 home games and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 overall.

Phoenix has 2 wins in their last 2 visits to Dallas, I think it’s time the Mavs put an end to that streak here. They’re in a slightly more comfortable position here having not had to travel since the break had started, plus the Suns had both of their stars in Indiana over the weekend, while Luka Doncic was the only one for the Mavs. Go with the home team to cover the spread.

The 3 previous meetings between the two teams have seen 241, 242 and 256 points, with two of those games being played at the American Airlines Center. So it’s not really a surprise the oddsmakers have a 243 point projected total set for this game. However, I’m slightly worried that there could be some rust among the players after not playing any competitive basketball for a week. Both teams have also trended towards the under quite a lot lately – the Suns are 5-11 on the O/U in their last 16 games and 11-15 on the road for the season. Dallas has cashed on that bet 6 times in 8 games, and is 14-16 on the O/U at home this season. Head-to-head meetings are also 3-8 on the O/U in the last 11. These are the 4th best and 7th best defenses in terms of efficiency in the last 10 games played, so I think backing the under is a solid bet here.