My Double-Dime 8* play is on the Atl Hawks at 8:05 ET.
The Mavericks know they will be opening their title defense on the road, either against the Lakers or Thunder. "A sixth or seventh seed is generally gonna be viewed as an underdog-type team and that's OK," coach Rick Carlisle told the Mavericks' official website. "But either way, we've got to approach it the same way. We can't look for external motivations to get fired up to defend a championship." Dallas (36-29) is battling with the Denver (37-28) for the sixth seed but does owns the tiebreaker should the two finish with identical records. That means the Mavs have to win here in Atlanta, while the Nuggets must lose in Minnesota (Nuggets have won 18 of the last 20 meetings with the T-wolves). The Mavericks knocked off both the Lakers and Thunder en route to the title last season but would probably rather start with third-seeded Los Angeles (which will be without the suspended Metta World Peace for at least the first six games of the potential seven-game series), but then again, the Lakers have won all four meetings with the Mavs this year. In odd an odd scheduling ‘twist’ in this year’s compacted season, Dallas hasn’t played since losing 93-83 at Chicago last Saturday. Veteran guards Jason Terry and Jason Kidd were rested in that game and the whole team should be fresh for tonight. However, I’m NOT sure just what that means. As for Atlanta, the Hawks need a win to ensure the home court advantage in their first round series with Boston (or need the Celtics to lose tonight vs the Bucks). "It's important to try to get home-court advantage," guard Willie Green said. "We'll see what happens last game." The Hawks have won FOUR of their last five, after a 109-102 Tuesday win over the Clippers. Atlanta's bench has been playing well as of late and added 32 points in the win over the Clippers. I’m laying the points here.
Good luck...Larry