NBA continues march toward playoffs

Amidst college basketball's March Madness the NBA continues to play out its regular season this weekend, featuring a gaggle of games with playoff implications. And that includes a matchup between the two hottest teams in pro hoopdom, as the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night (8:30 pm Eastern).

First, though, comes Friday, when the Philadelphia 76ers, who have crawled a couple of games above the .500 mark by winning 16 of their last 22 games, host the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Celtics (7 pm Eastern). Also, the Chicago Bulls, now the two seed in the East, host the Atlanta Hawks (8 pm Eastern). And the Orlando Magic are out on the Left Coast to take on the Golden State Warriors (10:30 pm Eastern).

Saturday the Miami Heat, losers of five games in a row heading into Thursday's action, host the Memphis Grizzles (3:30 pm Eastern). Also, Atlanta hosts the Portland Trail Blazers (7 pm Eastern); Chicago hosts the Utah Jazz (8 pm Eastern); And the best team in the league so far this season, the San Antonio Spurs, visit the Houston Rockets (8:30 pm).

The Mavericks blew a late lead Wednesday night and lost at New Orleans 93-92. Nonetheless, the Mavs, going into a home game vs. the Knicks on Thursday night, have won 19 of their last 22 games to slip past LA and into the two spot in the Western Conference standings.

The Lakers, meanwhile, going into their game at Miami on Thursday night, have won eight games in a row, and trail Dallas by just a half-game in the West. And LA has been doing it lately with some pretty good defense, allowing just 87 PPG during their streak. Consequently the Lakers have seen five of their last eight games play UNDER their oddsmaker.ag totals. And on the season Los Angeles is 26-39 on the OVER/UNDER.

In the only previous meeting this season between these two teams the Mavericks beat LA 109-100 in Big D back in January. The two teams combined to shoot 55% from the field that night, which helped that game cruise OVER its posted total of 189.

On the oddsmaker.ag NBA futures market the Heat and Celtics are now +125 co-favorites to win the Eastern Conference, followed by, among others, the Bulls at +300, the Magic at +600, the Knicks at +1,000, the Hawks at +4,000, and the Sixers at +12,500.

On the other side of the bracket the three-time defending conference champion Lakers and Spurs are even-money co-favorites to win the West, followed by, among others, the Mavs at +400, the Blazers at +4,000, the Grizzlies at +6,000, the Jazz at +10,000, the Rockets at +25,000, and the Warriors at +40,000.

And San Antonio tops the betting on oddsmaker.ag's NBA championship board at +150, followed by, among others, Boston, LA, and Miami at +200, Chicago at +500, Dallas at +600, and Orlando at +1,000.