NBA Betting Preview: Dallas Mavericks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Game 1 Odds

The Oklahoma City Thunder (55-27) just missed the postseason a year ago due mainly to injuries to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, which ultimately cost head coach Scott Brooks his job.

The third-seeded Thunder are back in the playoffs under new head coach Billy Donovan and hope a revitalized Durant and Westbrook will lead them to an easy win in Saturday’s Game 1 versus the sixth-seeded Dallas Mavericks (42-40), who are listed as 12-point road underdogs at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

With Durant set to become a free agent after this season and Westbrook the following year, this might be the last run together in OKC for the top scoring duo in the NBA. Donovan tried to manage each of the star’s minutes carefully in hopes of keeping them both fresh for a deep postseason run.

Durant averaged almost three minutes less per game than his MVP campaign in 2013-14 after playing just 27 games last season. He led the team in scoring (28.2 points per game) and rebounding (8.2 per game), but Westbrook was arguably the team’s MVP with a career-high 18 triple-doubles.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round three of the past four years and did not qualify in 2012-13 after Oklahoma City swept them the previous season.

Led by future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki (18.3 PPG), Dallas has five players overall with scoring averages in double figures. But scoring has not been the problem for this squad; it has been poor defense, especially from the beginning of February until the end of March.

The Mavs did finish the regular season strong, though, winning seven of their last nine straight up and going 6-3 against the spread during that stretch, according to the OddsShark NBA Database.

Dallas lost all three regular-season meetings with the Thunder SU, going 1-2 ATS on the NBA betting lines. Prior to that, the Mavs had won five of the previous seven head-to-head matchups SU and ATS.

Bettors should expect a high-scoring series, with seven of the last nine meetings finishing over the total, including two of three this year.