Tip-off: Tuesday, 10:35 p.m. ET
Line: Los Angeles -8, Total: 187

Opening night of the NBA season finds the Lakers hosting the Mavericks in the highly anticipated debut of former Magic All-star, Dwight Howard.

Dallas is 9-3 ATS in its past road games in this series, but both of teams have changed drastically over the offseason. Also, both teams' stars are hurting. Lakers SG Kobe Bryant is questionable with a foot injury and Mavs PF Dirk Nowitzki is out indefinitely after undergoing knee surgery. New Dallas starting center, and fellow 7-footer, Chris Kaman is also nursing a calf injury, which is bad news against the Lakers frontcourt of Howard and Pau Gasol.

Can the new-look Lakers score an easy victory in the season opener? For the answer, connect to NBA Best Bets for all the Expert picks throughout the entire 2012-13 season. Last year, StatFox Dave won 62% ATS Best Bets in the regular season and was 5-0 ATS in the NBA Finals. StatFox Brian finished 59% ATS Best Bets in the 2011-2012 regular season.

The Mavericks have cycled out nearly every player that was part of their championship run in 2011. Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion are the notable players still playing for Rick Carlisle, but other than that, there’s a lot of unfamiliar faces. The Mavericks brought in Darren Collison to run their offense after Indiana lost faith in the young player. Also new in Dallas is SG O.J. Mayo. Both Mayo and Kaman have performed at very high levels at some point in their careers and Mark Cuban is hoping he can cash in on both of them.

Howard pushed his way out of Orlando and after a long, exhausting process ended up alongside Bryant, Gasol and the other big-name acquisition for Los Angeles, Steve Nash. The Lakers capitalized on their ability to sign and trade and were finally able to give Kobe Bryant the type of point guard he’s never had. Nash is a floor general and will make an already impressive Lakers offensive unit better.