The Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets are playing Game 5 of the NBA playoffs first round series on Tuesday and the matchup on TNT starts up at 8 pm ET and will be streaming online from the Overtime website and this comes as the Mavs will try and stay alive on the road at the Toyota Center.
The Mavericks come in after winning against the Rockets in Game 4 to stay alive and moving forward the team has to find a way to win on the road to keep things going. The Mavs and Rockets have had a back and forth series, but the Rockets have been winning games and they have played very well on offense. The team scored 121 points on the Rockets in Game 4 and they held the Rockets to just two made three pointers and that will not get things done.
Chandler Parsons is dealing with an injury and that is a huge hit for the Mavericks and they are hoping for a big game from Dirk Nowitzki in the matchup on Tuesday. James Harden has been very good through the playoffs and he put up 24 points and five assists in the last game against the Mavericks. Dwight Howard coming back was huge for the Rockets and he had seven rebounds in the Game 4 loss.
Monta Ellis scored 31 points for the Mavericks and JJ Barea had 13 assists, while Tyson Chandler added 14 rebounds for the team in the win. Harden has not been hot from long range and the Rockets know they need to improve on that. The team was one of the best three point shooting teams in the league this season and they have struggled overall. Harden comes in as an MVP candidate and he is trying to add a deep playoff run to his special season. The Mavericks got production from their bench and they are looking to just stay alive even with the long odds of the team winning the series.
Rajon Rondo is out and he is basically done with the Mavericks and that has left Barea to fill his role on offense. The team has not won in Houston in a while and they lost their last four games there and they have not won on the road in the playoffs in Houston in a decade. The Mavericks played the Spurs tough last season, but they do not appear to have enough to come back against the Rockets. Houston is expecting a decent run this year and now they will try and take care of business by putting an end to the Mavericks in the series.
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