Nuggets vs. Mavericks – Western Conference Showdown

The Nuggets of Denver and the Mavericks of Dallas will clash on the court on Friday in a Western Conference matchup for playoff positioning coming down the stretch of the NBA’s regular season at 8:30 p.m.

According to the Sportsbook, the Mavericks are a 4-point favorite going into the matchup at home, with the over/under resting at 205 ½ points for the game.

The Nuggets have dominated the Mavericks against the spread in their last 7 meetings, coming out on the winning end 6 of those times.

Chauncey Billups always seems to get up for and play his best games against other elite point guards and Billups still has a chip on his shoulder from the 2003 playoffs when he was sidelined for most of the Pistons’ series against the Nets due to injury. He has talked of how different that series would have been numerous times and he still aches about it.

Against slower point guards like Kidd and Steve Nash (on defense for Nash, anyway), Billups usually dominates because he can overpower them. The kinds of point guards that give Billups trouble are usually the smaller, quicker guys such as Devin Harris of the Nets. Billups should win his matchup and have a huge game.

The Mavericks have done very well against the spread in recent home games vs. the Western Conference but most teams in the West don’t play the same style of rugged defense that the Nuggets are capable of playing, making this a different kind of matchup. With Billups at the helm, the Nuggets are capable of playing the Eastern Conference style of ball that gives the Mavs trouble.

Because of Billups’ ability to control tempo and keep the score low in this one, the Nuggets are a good bet to grind this game out and win or at least cover the spread in a close game against Dallas tonight.

The key for the Nuggets will be to at least slow down Dirk Nowitzki a little bit, but if they focus on him and use their help defense they should be able to do that enough to cover the spread here tonight.