Trail Blazers vs. Mavericks Betting Preview: Will Defense Win Out in Dallas?

The NBA has a great product right now. There are at least two to three games per night. Saturday night has 16 teams in action. The Portland Trail Blazers (9-3) are going to Dallas to play the Mavericks (6-5).

The NBA has a lot of games to watch. The Portland Trail Blazers (9-3) are going to Dallas to play the Mavericks (6-5). The teams have different records. The Eastern Conference is resurgent.

The Trail Blazers are 9-3 and second in the Western Conference. They have a good schedule and a solid defensive team. However, their Pythagorean record is 7-5 and they play seven of their 12 games on the road. Damian Lillard has missed five games already and Jusuf Nurkic has two. Josh Hart is the only player in their rotation who hasn't missed a game this season. They play the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. The team has the sixth-best Defensive Rating in basketball.

The Mavericks are 2.5 games ahead of the Trail Blazers in the early standings. Christian Wood is expected to return against the Blazers on Saturday. Luka Doncic has been playing too much basketball lately. The Mavs might try to limit his usage. The game is on a hard schedule. It's early in this season. There's a chance the Mavericks might be tired. They lost both games without Christian wood.

The books set a low total of 217.5 for the game. Jusuf Nurkic is still questionable and the Mavericks are favored by 5-5. The under is available at 214. 5. The teams are in the bottom three in Pace so far this season and have two of the top nine defenses in NBA.

Trail Blazers play against the Mavericks in Dallas.