The Houston Rockets are 14-4 straight up and 12-6 against the spread over their last 18 games. The Rockets will be looking for their fifth straight win when they host the Dallas Mavericks Tuesday night at the Toyota Center in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
NBA Playoff Betting: Dallas Mavericks vs. Houston Rockets odds, matchup stats
The favored Houston Rockets will try to take a 2-0 series lead on Tuesday when they host the Dallas Mavericks.
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Houston is a 5.5-point favorite for Game 2 according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Rockets took a 1-0 series lead with a 118-108 win in Game 1. After winning Game 1, Houston is now 5-1 SU and ATS in its last six games against the Mavericks according to the OddsShark NBA Database.
Since losing back-to-back games to San Antonio earlier this month, the Rockets are 4-0 SU and 3-1 ATS over their last four games including double-digit wins in each of their last three. The offense has been surging of late with 110 points per game over the Rockets' last nine games.
The Mavericks seemed to be on a slight uptick heading into the postseason on a 3-1 SU and ATS run, but that momentum didn't carry over into any success in Game 1. Overall, Dallas hasn't been playing all that well over the last few months with an 11-13 SU and 7-17 ATS record over its last 24 games.
The Mavericks will need to figure things out in a hurry if they want to avoid a short series against this red-hot Rockets team.
The OVER is 7-0 in Dallas' last seven games and 6-1 in Houston's last seven games. Tuesday night's total for the Mavericks vs. Rockets betting matchup is set at 215.5 points at the sportsbooks.
James Harden was a clear candidate for MVP over the course of the regular season with 27.4 points and seven assists per game, and players like him tend to bring their game to the next level in the postseason. Dallas also has a superstar that can take over a game in Dirk Nowitzki, who was excellent in Game 1 despite the losing effort.
How these two team leaders play, and how well their opponents can defend them, will be a big factor in determining how Game 2 and the rest of this series will go.
