The NBA season continues on Monday. The Charlotte Hornets will hit the road and face off against the Dallas Mavericks. It's time to continue our NBA odds series and make a Hornets-Mavericks prediction and pick.
These two teams have had similar seasons. The Charlotte Hornets are 15-13 and are coming off a very narrow victory. While the Dallas Mavericks are 13-13 and are coming off a dominant victory. This should be an interesting game.
Here are the odds for the Hornets-Mavericks Monday night NBA matchup, courtesy of FanDuel.
NBA Odds: Hornets-Mavericks Odds
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Charlotte Hornets: +2 (-106)
Dallas Mavericks: -2 (-114)
Over: 217.5 (-108)
Under: 217.5 (-112)
Why The Hornets Could Cover The Spread
The Charlotte Hornets have been having a very solid season. Through their first 28 games they have 15 wins and have been trending upwards. Charlottes is coming off a 1 point victory over the Sacramento Kings. The Hornets got very lucky at the end of that game and will look to improve on that performance on Monday. This Hornets team has shown that it can be very competitive and they should be able to pull up the upset on Monday. The main challenge for Charlotte will be to continue overcoming their injuries. If they can maintain their competitiveness without some of their best guys they should be able to get a win on Monday.
The Hornets win over the Kings was not a dominant victory. However, Charlotte was impressive across most scoring metrics. The Hornets shot the ball at a much higher efficiency than the Kings, 55.2% vs 47.5%. However, the game stayed close because of the volume of shots that the Kings managed to put up. Sacramento took 14 more shots than Charlotte. Another aspect of that performance that the Hornets need to improve is rebounding. The Kings out rebounded Charlotte by 9. If the Hornets want to win on Monday the two big things they need to work on are the amount of shots they take and rebounding. If they can improve on those two things they should have no problem on Monday.
Leading the way for this Hornets team is Miles Bridges. With LaMelo Ball out, the leader of this Hornets team is without a doubt Bridges. In their win over Sacramento, Bridges had 23 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds. He has really come into his own this season and has been doing it all. He is a front runner for most improved player of the year and for good reason. If he can continue to have dominating performances this Hornets team will continue to win games, starting with a road win over the Mavericks.
Why The Mavericks Could Cover The Spread
The Dallas Mavericks have been having an underwhelming season. Through their first 26 games they are dead even with 13 wins. They are coming off an impressive 19 point victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. That was their first of multiple games without Luka Doncic. Luka is going to be out for this matchup, but it was a promising sight to see Dallas get a win without their leader. If the Mavericks can carry that same energy into a tough match on Monday then they could come out ahead.
The Mavericks impressed across nearly every statistic in their win over the Thunder. Dallas took 10 more shots than OKC and shot the ball 5% more efficiently. Just this metric is a recipe for a win. What was arguably more impressive was the Dallas rebounding. The Mavericks had an impressive 54 rebounds while OKC only had 39. Rebounding is a weak point in Charlotte's game, and if Dallas can exploit this then they could start pulling ahead. Another metric that was impressive was the lack of turnovers, the Mavs only had 6 turnovers throughout the whole game. If Dallas can repeat that type of performance on Monday the Hornets are in trouble.
Without Luka, the leader of this team is Kristaps Porzingis. While the unicorn may be somewhat limited on playing time, his efficiency and impact on games can't be understated. In their win over OKC, Kristaps had 13 points and 7 rebounds. On the season he is averaging over 19 points and nearly 8 rebounds per game. Porzingis is extremely talented and will look to step things up on Monday. If the unicorn has a big game then the Mavericks should be able to take care of business at home.
Final Hornets-Mavericks Prediction & Pick
This pick is not actually very difficult. The Hornets have been a very competitive team. Even though their last four games have been extremely close, that's only because they have been playing very competitive teams. The Mavericks are a step down in competition from the teams that Charlotte has been facing recently. Without Luka the Mavs are vulnerable, and as underdogs the Hornets are a no-brainer for this match up. Pick Charlotte to win and cover.
FINAL HORNETS-MAVERICKS PICK: Charlotte Hornets +2 (-106)
FINAL HORNETS-MAVERICKS SCORE PREDICTION: Hornets 110 – Mavericks 105
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