Sean Blazek's Best Bet of the Day - Thursday Dec 1

December 1, 2022 by Sean Blazek

The Dallas Mavericks travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons on Thursday inside Little Caesars Arena. Dallas is coming off a solid win at home over the Warriors on Tuesday. They are hoping to carry that momentum into Detroit and snap a five-game road losing streak.

Detroit is coming off a 140-110 loss to New York in a game where they finished shooting 50.6% from the field as a team. This is the first meeting between these two teams this season. Dallas has dominated the Pistons in recent history winning five straight matchups with both victories coming by double-digits last season. Expect this game to end in similar fashion and take the Mavericks to cover the 7.5-point spread in tonight’s contest.

The Mavericks are currently 10-10 and are tied for 9th in the West. Outside of Luka Doncic, Dallas has struggled to find consistent scoring as they are averaging 109.4 points per game – 25^th in the league. Doncic is accounting for over 30% of the offensive production, which is not sustainable long term if this team want to make a run deep into the playoffs. He is coming off his third 40-point triple-double of the season and will be ready to unleash on this poor Detroit defense. The Pistons struggle defend teams in the paint allowing 54.8 points in the paint – 29^th in the league. Look for Doncic to exploit this weakness and get both Dwight Powell and Christian Wood opportunities down low against Marvin Bagley III. On the defensive end, Dallas is allowing 107.6 points to opponents – fourth fewest in the NBA.

Detroit is a young squad that has been battling injuries and it shows as they rank last in the NBA with a record of 5-18. Cade Cunningham (shin) remains out indefinitely. Jaden Ivey (knee) is listed as questionable. Ivey has missed the previous three games, so keep an eye on his status as he has been one of the bright spots for the Pistons averaging 16.2 points per game in his rookie campaign. The Pistons are averaging just 109.1 points per game and allowing 117.7 points to opponents. They have been led by Bojan Bogdanovic who is averaging 20.3 points per game.

The Mavericks are coming off a convincing win over the Warriors and will look to improve on what has been an awful start on the road this season. The Pistons struggle to score points against top ten defensive units and tonight they have their hands full against another a top-tier defense. Detroit is not the same without Cunningham as they are 2-9 overall and 0-4 at home and losing by an average of 12.75 points in those four home games this season. Have confidence in taking Dallas to cover the points on the road in this one.

Although Detroit is coming off a game where they allowed 140 points to their opponent, I also like this game to go under. Both teams are solid at defending the perimeter ranking top ten in fewest three pointers allowed to opponents. It will be a struggle for Detroit to put 100 points against this defense and the Mavericks do not put up a ton of point as they play at the slowest pace in the NBA. Even if the Pistons try and control the tempo by speeding up the pace, they will struggle to find baskets outside of Bogdanovic. Expect this game to finish around 214-218 points. Take the Under on Thursday night.

See the Best Odds for the matchup here