The Mavericks come into this series with the momentum of winning and covering four of their last five against the Suns. They also have the confidence of knowing they won and covered three of four from the Warriors this season. But Draymond Green missed three of those meetings, and Klay Thompson missed two of them. Now, the Warriors have the gang all together, a Game 1 environment at home and a message to send. I see a double-digit Golden State win. Warriors cover.

As I noted yesterday with the Al Horford news on Boston, ideally you wait until the last minute to place any wager. I don't really have that option in terms of posting here but will wait before actually betting this to make sure no key Warriors are suddenly out with COVID or something (Coach Steve Kerr is back). I am noticing the ML ticking up a bit at some books, so I'll just grab this now for our purposes. The Mavs may well cover the spread, but Golden State has won 12 straight playoff home openers and the Dubs are rested. They also are on an eight-game home winning streak overall this year. Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins are good defenders and should help slow Luka Doncic down a bit. I'll likely parlay this with something (Dodgers behind Walker Buehler?).