DALLAS – Dallas Mavericks preseason hype may have been high but the latest prospects for the team and star Luka Doncic have declined slightly. The good news is … the odds are still very, very good that the Mavs will make the NBA playoffs and Doncic is running as the most valuable player in the league.
NBA MVP odds favorite Doncic has slipped to fourth place on the oddsboard at +1200 at SportsBetting.com, though he still posts all-star numbers.
Favorite new MVP? It’s not Lebron James, who hasn’t won an MVP award since 2013 with the Miami Heat.
Joel Embiid is the new favorite to win the NBA MVP for the 2020-21 season, after a stellar run in the first half of the season; getting an average of 30 points and 11 rebounds while shooting a 52-percent high off the field and 41-percent from three.
Doncic is behind Embiid, James and Nikola Jokic.
The Mavericks odds slipped to make the NBA playoffs as well compared to their preseason odds.
As of right now, the chances are Mavs will make the postseason Yes -345, No +275. This means a 77.5 percent chance that Dallas will make the playoffs, a number that has fallen since the start of the season with an 87.7 percent chance.
The Mavs have kicked back from their slow start to regain a successful 18-16 record. Dallas has won nine of their last 11 games thanks in large part to Doncic ‘s 28.6 points per game, 8.4 rebounds and nine assists per game. Not to mention a 22-year team record streak of 14 games just 25-points. ‘Transcendent’ ‘is one of the words used by Dallas coach Rick Carlisle to describe Doncic.
[READ: Second All-Star Outing “A Pleasure” For Mavs Luka Doncic]
In the Western Conference standings, Dallas are currently at 8th, which would see them enter the play-off tournament between teams that seeded 7th-10th for the last two playoff places.
A bit of a break for Dallas in the second half of the 2020-21 NBA season … 38 Mavs games in 68 days are tied for second most in the league and include 10 backups. He starts Wednesday vs. the San Antonio Spurs with three games in four days coming out of the break.
[CONTINUE READING: Mavs Second-Half Schedule: 10 Things To Know]