Phoenix at Dallas

Wednesday May 24th, 8:00 ET

Both the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns wrapped up grueling seven-game semi-final series wins Monday night. They get one day of rest before starting the Western Conference Finals Wednesday night in Dallas.

The Mavericks went seven games and then overtime before ousting the San Antonio Spurs Monday night 119-111 as a 3.5-point underdog. In doing so the Mavericks improved their postseason record to 8-3 straight-up and 9-2 ATS. If they have an advantage in this series versus the Suns, other than being at home, it is that they wrapped up their first-round victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in Four games. Phoenix had to go seven games to oust the Los Angeles Lakers in Round 1 and then seven more to eliminate the Los Angeles Clippers.

Eliminate the Clippers the Suns did, taking them down 127-107 as a four-point home favorite. That win improved the Suns postseason mark to 8-6 both straight-up and ATS and sent the Suns on to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year. Last year the club was eliminated by San Antonio.

This year the Suns draw Dallas, the team that finished with the second-best record in the Conference and third best in the NBA at 60-22. Along the way the Mavericks went 34-7 at home and 37-15 versus Western Conference foes. They are now 45-18 versus Western Conference teams (counting the playoffs) and 38-8 at home. The Mavericks went 3-2 ATS in their five playoff home games and saw three of those five games go over the total.

They have not done that well versus the Suns, however. The teams split four games this year with the Mavericks winning the first two meetings and the Suns the last two. Each team won once on the other team's floor. Over the past three seasons the Suns have a slight edge over the Mavericks in head-to-head play with nine wins and eight losses. They are 8-9 ATS, 5-4 ATS in Dallas on an identical 5-4 straight-up record. The road side then in this series is 9-8 straight-up and 10-7 ATS.

Phoenix won the Pacific Division this year with a 54-28 record. It was 23-18 on the road and 32-20 versus Western Conference clubs. Playoffs included it is now 25-22 on the road and 40-28 versus Western Conference clubs. The Suns are just 2-4 straight-up on the road in the playoffs and 3-3 ATS. Nine of their fourteen playoff games have gone over the total while the Mavericks have gone over in seven of their 11 playoff contests.

During the regular season the Suns averaged 108.4 points/game and allowed 102.8. They were outrebounded by over four boards/game (45.9 to 41. but shot a high percentage and high number of three-point shots and had 26.6 assists/game to 18.9 for their opponents.

Dallas averaged 99.2 pts/game this year and allowed 93.1. It wins the battle of the boards by about four/game (42.2 to 38.3) and is about even in assists for and against (18.0 for, 17.5 against).

The oddsmaker opened Dallas a 6.5-point favorite in Game 1 with a total of 220.5.