The 8-10 Dallas Mavericks will travel on a back to back as they face the 7-12 Phoenix Suns in an NBA pro basketball game on Thursday night. Tip off time from Phoenix is scheduled for 10:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by TNT.

The current odds in this game has the home team Phoenix Suns favored by -3 points with an over under line of 199 ½ points. When the NBA odds were released a few hours ago the Suns were -3 point favorites and the total was 199 points. So we have seen no movement on the side and a ½ point move over the total.

During the lockout shorten season the teams faced off four times with Dallas winning and covering the point spread in three of the games. Trend: The under is 5-1 in their past six games.

The Mavericks are 2-7 straight up on the road this season as they get pounded last night by the LA Clippers 112-90 as a +8 ½ point underdog. Former Clipper Chris Kaman decided to take a shot at the Clippers owner prior to the flight to LA and the Clippers brought their “A” game to the court. With Dirk Nowitzki in rehab for his knee surgery the Mavericks are struggling mightily for offense. They have lost four of their past five games and have averaged just 89 points a game during this span.

This is a tough spot for the Phoenix Suns. They return to the court at home with just one days rest following a grueling six game east coast road trip that concluded on Tuesday in a 108-98 road defeat at Memphis. The Suns went 1-5 straight up in the just concluded six game road trip. Their defense really went south as the team has allowed an average of 107 points per game in those five losses. Their only win on the trip came in a 91-78 win against a bad Cleveland team. The Suns are one of the worst defensive units in the NBA as they allow 103 points a game which is 30th in the league and 47% shooting that is 28th in the NBA.