NBA Weekend Preview
by Darin of Ultimatecapper.com
The Phoenix Suns will try to make it two in a row on the road to open up their Western Conference finals series with the Dallas Mavericks Friday night, while the Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat head to south Florida all tied up in their Eastern Conference finals.
The Suns beat the Mavs in Game 1 Wednesday 121-118, coming back from 9 points down late in the game to steal a win and home-court advantage in this series.
Phoenix is 26-22 straight up on the road this season, 3-4 in the playoffs, 27-21 against the spread away from home, and 13-12 ats as underdogs.
Dallas is 38-9 straight up at home, 4-2 in the playoffs, 25-22 vs. the number and 36-37 ats as chalk.
The Mavericks are 8-4 in the playoffs this year, the only losses coming by 1, 2, 3 and 5 points.
The Suns beat Dallas in the Western Conference semis last season 4 games to 2. The teams split four games regular season this year, each winning once on the other’s home court.
Phoenix will be without guard Raja Bell, who suffered a calf injury Wednesday, for Friday's game, while Dallas might be minus Josh Howard, who has a bad ankle.
Dallas is a 7 ½-point favorite for Friday’s Game 2, with a total of 224.
Games 3 and 4 of this series will be played Sunday and Tuesday in Phoenix.
In the Eastern Conference, the road team also won Game 1 of the conference finals. The Miami Heat bottled up the Detroit Pistons 91-86 Tuesday night, but the Pistons held on to beat the Heat 92-88 Thursday night to even up this series.
These two teams met in last season’s Eastern Conference finals, with Detroit prevailing in 7 games. The Heat led the series 3 games to 2, but lost Game 6 with guard Dwyane Wade on the bench and fell late in Game 7.
The Pistons won the regular-season series between these two teams this season 3 games to 1, and only a miraculous Miami rally in the last meeting Feb. 12 kept it from being a sweep.
Miami is a 3 1/2-point favorite for Saturday's Game 3 (8 p.m. Eastern), with a total of 182. Game 4 of this series will be played Monday in Miami.
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Ultimatecapper's Take: This deep into the NBA playoffs there's no real betting value in these spreads. We're gonna grab some beers and play a prop or two. No use in betting a ton on a game that's a coin flip!
