Who’s Playing
Cleveland Cavaliers @ Dallas Mavericks
Current Records: Cleveland 29-4, Dallas 20-14
How To Watch
When: Friday, January 3, 2025 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Friday, January 3, 2025 at 8:30 p.m. ET Where: American Airlines Center — Dallas, Texas
American Airlines Center — Dallas, Texas TV: FanDuel SN – Ohio
FanDuel SN – Ohio Follow: CBS Sports App
CBS Sports App Online streaming: fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.) Ticket Cost: $79.64
What to Know
The Cavaliers and the Mavericks are an even 5-5 against one another since November of 2019, but not for long. The Cleveland Cavaliers will be staying on the road on Friday to face off against the Dallas Mavericks at 8:30 p.m. ET at American Airlines Center. The Cavaliers are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they’ve averaged 122.4 points per game this season.
The Cavaliers can’t be too worried about heading out to take on the Mavericks: they just beat the Lakers at home, who had been dominant on their own court up to that point. The Cavaliers walked away with a 122-110 victory over the Lakers on Tuesday.
The Cavaliers can attribute much of their success to Jarrett Allen, who dropped a double-double on 27 points and 14 rebounds. With that strong performance, Allen is now averaging an impressive 10.1 rebounds per game.
The Cavaliers were working as a unit and finished the game with 32 assists (they’re ranked fifth in assists per game overall). That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they’ve now posted at least 25 assists in 12 consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks’ recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Wednesday after their third straight defeat. They opened the new year with a less-than-successful 110-99 loss to the Rockets.
Cleveland is on a roll lately: they’ve won 12 of their last 13 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 29-4 record this season. As for Dallas, their defeat dropped their record down to 20-14.
Looking forward, the Cavaliers are the favorite in this one, as the experts expect to see them win by seven points. This contest will be their 18th straight as the favorites (so far over this stretch they are 12-5 against the spread).
The Cavaliers skirted past the Mavericks 121-119 in their previous matchup back in February of 2024. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Cavaliers since the team won’t have the home-court advantage this time around. We’ll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Odds
Cleveland is a solid 7-point favorite against Dallas, according to the latest NBA odds.
The line has drifted a bit towards the Cavaliers, as the game opened with the Cavaliers as a 4.5-point favorite.
The over/under is 230.5 points.
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Series History
Dallas and Cleveland both have 5 wins in their last 10 games.