Mavericks vs. Trail Blazers betting preview and matchup stats

The Dallas Mavericks are just 1-3 straight up and against the spread over their last four games on the road. The Mavericks will look for better road results this Thursday night when they visit the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center in a 10:30 p.m. ET tipoff.

Dallas and Portland are both currently going off at 25-1 odds to win the NBA championship. With Portland having played a late game in Los Angeles against the Clippers on Wednesday night, Dallas might be able to catch the Trail Blazers tired and keep this game close.

Since starting the season off on a 26-10 SU and 19-16-1 ATS tear, the Mavericks have cooled off over their last 26 games with a 14-12 SU and 10-14-2 ATS record. Dallas has gone 4-2 SU and ATS over its last six games, and the team would like to start stringing some wins together soon to build momentum heading into the postseason. The Mavs are 10-4 SU and 9-5 ATS over their last 14 games against Portland, according to the OddsShark NBA Database.

The Blazers entered Wednesday’s action with a 6-3 SU and 5-4 ATS record over their last nine games, playing far better than they had over their previous 11-game stretch of 3-8 SU and 2-9 ATS. The Trail Blazers are 6-1 SU and 5-2 ATS in their last seven games at home.

The total has gone UNDER in each of Dallas’ last eight games on the NBA betting lines. The offense has not been as effective for the Mavericks since they acquired Rajon Rondo back in December in a trade with the Boston Celtics.

Both of these teams have the talent to make deep postseason runs should the stars align correctly, but part of that will include earning home court in the first round to get favorable seeding in the postseason. With so few games separating second place from seventh place in the West, every matchup between two Western Conference contenders will be huge. Motivation shouldn’t be a problem for these teams down the stretch in these big games.