{"id":246915,"date":"2026-04-12T23:49:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/246915\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:49:20","slug":"mmbets-the-chicago-bulls-visit-the-dallas-mavericks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/246915\/","title":{"rendered":"MMBets: The Chicago Bulls visit the Dallas Mavericks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Three years ago, almost to the day, a ragtag collection of end-of-roster Mavericks nearly torpedoed Dallas\u2019s lottery dreams by almost winning a game no one in the front office wanted to win against these same Chicago Bulls. Theo Pinson, McKinley Wright, AJ Lawson \u2014 names that barely register now \u2014 chucked four three-pointers in the final 23 seconds that could have changed everything. They all missed. The lottery gods were merciful. The Mavs drafting Lively of eventually happened. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mavsmoneyball.com\/2023\/6\/27\/23772978\/the-phenomenal-draft-by-the-dallas-mavericks-almost-never-happened\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The full story of that 2023 game is worth a read if you haven\u2019t seen it.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;The full story of that 2023 game is worth a read if you haven\u2019t seen it.&quot;}\" class=\"link \">The full story of that 2023 game is worth a read if you haven\u2019t seen it.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Tonight the wheel turns all the way around. The Bulls (31-50) visit American Airlines Center for the final game of the 2025-26 Dallas Mavericks season, and the hot potato is back on the stove. Dallas sits tied with Memphis at 25-56 for the sixth-best lottery odds\u20148.2% at number one, 34.4% top-four. The Grizzlies play Houston tonight as 17-point underdogs on a seven-game losing streak. They are almost certainly losing that game, which means Dallas needs to lose this one to avoid falling behind Memphis in the standings. Meanwhile, Chicago, whose first-round pick belongs to Portland, would also prefer not to win. Two teams, one basketball, zero interest in the outcome\u2026at least not the outcome normally associated with competitive games in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Except Cooper Flagg doesn\u2019t care about any of that. Flagg has one closing argument left in the Rookie of the Year race against his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel, and he\u2019s going to make it loudly, in front of the home crowd, on the last night of his rookie season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Let\u2019s scan the lines in search of value.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\ud83c\udfc0 Fixture: Chicago Bulls (31-50) @ Dallas Mavericks (25-56) \ud83d\udccd American Airlines Center \u2014 Dallas, TX \ud83d\udd56 7:40 PM CST, Sunday, April 12, 2026 \ud83d\udcfa KFAA Channel 29 \/ MavsTV<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\ud83d\udcca DraftKings Snapshot (as of 1:08 AM CST) Spread: DAL -6.5 (-112) | CHI +6.5 (-108) Total: 246.5 (O -108 \/ U -112) Moneyline: DAL -285 | CHI +230<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcc9 Game Side Lean: Dallas -6.5<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Bulls are missing Giddey, Buzelis, Okoro, Yabusele, and a handful of others. What\u2019s left is a skeleton crew playing out the string. Dallas, despite its own depleted roster, is at home and has enough pride \u2014 and enough of a Flagg performance incoming \u2014 to cover a modest number against a team this shorthanded. Jason Kidd pulled his starters in a five-point game on Wednesday, yes. But tonight is different. Tonight is the last home game, the last crowd, the last chance to send the fans home with something to hold onto until October. Dallas covers.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd2e Total Lean: Under 246.5<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Both teams are missing significant rotation pieces. Neither coaching staff is going to push pace or pressure the other into an up-and-down track meet. This figures to be a halfcourt game decided by who wants to lose more gracefully \u2014 which, ironically, means fewer possessions, slower pace, and a final score that lands somewhere in the low 110s. Under 246.5 has room to breathe.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfaf Player Props We Like<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Cooper Flagg Over 32.5 Points (-108) Flagg scored 33 against San Antonio on Friday on 25 shots and the ROY race is genuinely undecided. He has 51, 49, and 45 already on his resume this season. Tonight is a home finale, a statement game, a closing argument against a Bulls defense that just got picked apart by Washington\u2019s end-of-roster guys. The Mavericks will feed him. He will go off. The number is actually conservative given what he\u2019s capable of on nights like this. Back him without hesitation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\ud83d\udca1 Summary: Dallas -6.5 at home in the season finale against a Bulls team with nobody left standing. Under 246.5 for a slow, deliberate hot potato game where nobody really wants the ball. Flagg over 32.5 because this is his night and everyone in the building knows it. Three picks, one last ride. Go Mavs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years ago, almost to the day, a ragtag collection of end-of-roster Mavericks nearly torpedoed Dallas\u2019s lottery dreams&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[93884,2485,93886,6385,4642,102,104,2582,103,93887,56,16027,93883,11721,93882,6394,11730,82,93881,93885],"class_list":{"0":"post-246915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-aj-lawson","9":"tag-american-airlines-center","10":"tag-buzelis","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-cooper-flagg","13":"tag-dallas","14":"tag-dallas-headlines","15":"tag-dallas-mavericks","16":"tag-dallas-news","17":"tag-giddey","18":"tag-houston","19":"tag-kon-knueppel","20":"tag-mckinley-wright","21":"tag-memphis","22":"tag-mortgage-matchup-center","23":"tag-phoenix-suns","24":"tag-portland","25":"tag-san-antonio","26":"tag-theo-pinson","27":"tag-yabusele"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}