The Dallas Mavericks (36-38) will look to get back to winning ways Sunday against the Charlotte Hornets (24-51). They have lost three games on the bounce, including to Charlotte on Friday 117-109.
Dallas lost on Friday despite being a 16-point favorite on home court and bookmaker Bovada now has the team as a 9.5-point favorite on the road Sunday. The points total is at 228.0 with the odds for both the over and under at -115.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 25th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
Luka Doncic had 34 points on Friday and missed a triple-double by just two assists, but the Mavericks gave up 37 points in the first quarter and never recovered from the deficit. The team’s record dropped to 3-7 in games where both Doncic and Kyrie Irving have been available.
The star duo is still trying to find a way to coexist but the team doesn’t have a lot of time left. After Sunday, there will be only seven games remaining for the Mavericks, and they have just dropped to 11th-place in the Western Conference, meaning the team currently isn’t even qualifying for the play-in tournament.
Charlotte has the third-worst record in the league and the season has basically been over for the team for quite some time. You could even say that it was over before it actually even began as LaMelo Ball missed the start of the season and the Hornets are a much worse team without him.
Ball ended up featuring in only 36 games for the team before getting shut down for the season with an ankle problem in February. Other players have battled injuries as well and it’s made the job very difficult for Hornets head coach Steve Clifford. However, having won two of their last three games, the Hornets have shown some fight and they could make things tricky again for the Mavs if the visitors produce another lackluster display.
Dallas head coach Jason Kidd openly called out his team after Friday’s embarrassing loss and will definitely hope to get a reaction out of the squad on Sunday.
Kidd’s team has lost four games in a row just once this season and having another such run so close to the end of the regular season would be hugely disappointing for everyone involved. The Mavericks actually have a pretty favorable schedule to close out the campaign, but they can’t switch off against the so-called weaker teams or else they will get punished as it happened on Friday.
