NBA Basketball: Indiana Pacers VS Dallas Mavericks Pick and Predictions 02/28/2023

Game: 8:40 PM ET,  Tuesday, February 28th, 2023

Venue: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

TV:  NBA League Pass

Pacers: 27-35, 12th place Eastern Conference

Mavericks: 32-30, 6th place Eastern Conference

BetMGM:  Point Spread: Mavs -9.5, O/U 237.5

PointsBet: Point Spread: Mavs -8.5, O/U 237.5

Fanduel: Point Spread:  Mavs -9, O/U 237.5

Pacers: PG Tyrese Haliburton, SG Andrew Nembhard, SF Buddy Hield, PF Aaron Nesmith, C Myles Turner

Mavericks: PG Luka Doncic, SG Kyrie Irving, SF Justin Holiday, PF Reggie Bullock, C Dwight Powell

An interconference battle that will determine very little.  The only reason to watch this game is because we will have money on it.  The Indiana Pacers have a very bright future… just not a bright immediate future.  Well below .500 on the season and mired in 12th place… It has become very obvious that they will be waiting for the NBA Draft Lottery like many others.  There is no urgency, there is no Push coming.  The Pacers have the 2nd best future backcourt in the league.  OKC has the first.  You can feel it when the Pacers are all healthy but the future backcourt is obviously pairing Haliburton and Ben Mathurin as the starting PG and SG… Those guys will need forwards… as they already have a quality Center that they signed to a two year extension.  They are hoping to win the NBA Draft Lottery, but if they do not… the ultimate prize for a team that has no true forwards is that kid in Alabama who is wrapped up in a friend's murder investigation. So they would love the 3rd pick in the draft also!  The Dallas Mavericks are a playoff bound team and have recently paired all-league all-stars PG Luka Doncic and PG Kyrie Irving. The experiment has yet to produce winning… but it will make the Mavericks deadly in the playoffs if they can find ANY defense on the roster to go with it.  The great betting opportunity here is in that BIG spread.  Let’s take the points and make some money.

The Indiana Pacers have won only 3 of their last 10 games. They went 6-4 ATS during that stretch.  They have a great selection of guards to play with… so great they routinely play 4 guards with a Center as their starting lineup. They won their last game 121-108 over the Orlando Magic.  In the win they got 24 points & 8 rebounds from C Myles Turner, 15 points & 14 assists from PG Tyrese Haliburton (who is already better than De’Aaron Fox), and 19 points from bench guard and rookie Ben Mathurin.  Ben should be ROY if the voters would recognize the “per minute” production… but instead they’ll give it to the rookie in Orlando who has the greenlight to miss shots and play as much as he wants.

The Dallas Mavericks have won 5 of their last 10 games. Going 6-4 ATS during that stretch.  The mix of Luka and Kyrie is not winning nearly as much as the roster before Kyrie, but they will score a lot of points.  They lost their last game to the Los Angeles Lakers 111-108 in embarrassing fashion as the Lakers came back from a 27 point DEFICIT to get the win.  In the loss Luka had 26 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists… Kyrie had 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. The story of the game is simple…. They shot the ball well in the first half and went ICE COLD in the second half.  C Dwight Powell, PF Reggie Bullock, and SF Justin Holiday each scored only 6 points as each shot poorly and played lousy second half defense.  Someone should tell every NBA basketball team that if they are ever up by 25+ points… no matter where in the game this is?... They MUST slow the tempo and get MORE opportunities at the foul line.  Missing a 3-pointer after using only 10 seconds of the shot clock is juts a gift to the team that is trying to catch up.

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Our prediction for Tuesday, February 28th is…. Mavericks 119 - Pacers 116

Bet on the Pacers… You will get 9.5 points to hold on to… AND you will get to see Halliburton play all-world defense on Luka.  The Mavs should win but the Pacers are healthy and ready to make a real game out of it.

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The Pacers are 8-2 ATS when playing 4 or less games in 10 days.

The Mavericks are 6-18 ATS (bad) as a favorite of 3.5 to 9.5 points.

Pacers: PG Tyrese Haliburton.  Tyrese is the prototype for the point guard of the future… like Luka Doncic, Cade Cunningham, Josh Giddey, and the soon to arrive Amen Thompson… he has real size and plays a game more similar to Lebron than it is to Chris Paul.  Soon “do it all” will be the skillset of Point Guards. Plus at 6’5 Tyrese may even be a little small for the position.

Mavericks:  PF Reggie Bullock.  Reggie is NOT a power forward.  Yet he will be the starter at that position.  He is a SG.  You would think he would be at a disadvantage… BUT the Pacers will be starting guards at Forward also.  A Mavericks loss would indicate that Reggie needs to go back to the bench and an actual Power Forward needs to enter the fray.

Pacers: Rick “do-over” Carlysle

Mavericks: Jason “Supervillian” Kidd