NBA Tuesday best bets: Heat will continue dominant start to season

After a 4-0 run on our NBA picks during the weekend, we stumbled to an 0-3 record on Monday. Still, we're 18-13 against the spread this season ahead of Tuesday's five-game schedule.

Heat (-1.5, 214.5) at Mavericks, 7:30 p.m. ET

I've been fading the Dallas Mavericks under new coach Jason Kidd, and they've rewarded me with a 2-4 ATS record to start the season. So, why stop now in a matchup against arguably the most impressive team in the league?

The Miami Heat enter Tuesday with the NBA's best net rating (plus-16.5), which would be the all-time record across a full season. Clearly, that number will balance out, but it underscores how dominant Miami has been in beating five of its first six opponents by 13 or more points.

The key has been the Heat's top-ranked defense, which has virtually walled off the paint through six games. The Mavericks simply haven't proven reliable enough from deep to expect an upset in this one.

Pick: Heat -1.5

Rockets at Lakers (-10.5, 217), 10:30 p.m.

Didn't we just see this exact matchup two days ago? The Houston Rockets covered as 11-point underdogs at the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night, and now these two face off in the same venue for each team's next contest. The last 16 times a matchup like this occurred in the regular season, the team that covered the first time went 13-2-1 ATS.

Houston also managed to cover last game despite one of its worst offensive showings of the season, shooting 21.4% from three and 51.7% from the free-throw line to go with a season-high 25 turnovers. If any of those three marks normalize on Tuesday, the encore should be even closer.

Pick: Rockets +10.5

C Jackson Cowart is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter (@CJacksonCowart) or email him at cjackson.cowart@thescore.com.