NBA Playoff Betting – (7) Mavericks at (2) Rockets (Game 5)

Dallas Mavericks at Houston Rockets (-5.5, 222 o/U)

The Dallas Mavericks (1-3, 0-2 away) avoided a sweep at the hands of the Houston Rockets (3-1, 2-0 home) on Sunday, taking a 121-109 win at home. Now trailing 3-1 in the best-of-seven affair, the Mavs will try to make a series out of it tonight by stealing Game 5 on the road at the Toyota Center (8:00 PM Eastern).

The Mavs played by far their best game of the postseason in Game 4. Point guard JJ Barea, who started for the first time in the series in place of the injured Rajon Rondo, ran the offense to perfection, scoring 17 points and adding 13 assists.

“He’s always a guy that’s going to battle,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told the Mavericks’ official website. “He’s relished playoff opportunities. That’s been the pattern of his career. He’s played big for us a lot while he’s been here. I just think that’s how he’s wired and how he approaches it.”

Monta Ellis also had a huge night in the win, scoring 31 points to lead the Mavericks.

Houston, meanwhile, can blame its mediocre shooting for the loss; despite piling up 109 points by game’s end, the team went 2/21 from the three-point range in the first three-quarters.

Houston coach Kevin McHale was dissatisfied with the effort his squad showed.

“They played harder than us,” said McHale. “They beat us on the boards bad. They pushed it down on us. Our coverages were really loose, and they just played harder than we did. That’s the bottom line; they played with more desperation.”

In the trends, Dallas is 1-6 ATS in its last seven games on the road in Houston and the total has gone over in six of the last nine such games.

Look for the Rockets – who covered the first two games of the series at home – to respond tonight and cover again as 5.5-point home favorites.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)