Dallas at Indiana

Dallas opened its season Wednesday with a 128-110 loss at Houston, and one quarter decided it. The Rockets won the second 38-12 and led 70-38 at the half, but over the other three quarters the Mavericks outscored them 98-90. The collapse came from ball security. Dallas committed 21 turnovers, Houston turned them into 32 points, and the Mavericks shot 4-of-19 in the second quarter and missed all 14 of their threes. Cooper Flagg still scored 32, 23 of them after halftime, and went 11-of-13 at the free-throw line. That is a half-court source of points that also stops the clock. First-year coach Dusty May had 10 players log more than five minutes before halftime, and Kyrie Irving played 24 minutes in his first game back from a torn ACL. Indiana is 1-0 after a 123-120 win at New Orleans, where Tyrese Haliburton played his first regular-season game since rupturing his Achilles 16 months ago. The Pacers went 19-63 last season without him. Two offenses built around returning guards are working with one game of rhythm each. I'm taking Dallas with the points and the UNDER tonight.