NBA: Sacramento Kings vs San Antonio Spurs Preview, Odds, Prediction

The San Antonio Spurs host the Sacramento Kings for the second time in three days, hoping to avoid the scenario from the previous event. The guests from California snatched a win, their fifth straight, making a solid upset at the AT&T Center. This is the last train for the Kings if they want to reach the playoffs, and these five victories boosted the morale of the young crew from Golden One Center. As for the Spurs, we expected more from them during the trade deadline, and instead of getting out stronger, they would lose LaMarcus Aldridge, jeopardizing the postseason place, according to various pundits and analysts.

Preview

Sacramento Kings (22-25, +120) defeated the Cavaliers, Hawks, Warriors, and the Cavs once again, prior to their 132-115 win in San Antonio. Those rivals aren’t anything special (Warriors without Steph), but still, five consecutive triumphs have to be respected regardless of any outside factors.

Three players had 20 or more points,s with De’Aaron Fox leading the way with 24 buckets. Richaun Holmes was once again superb with 23 points and 12 boards, shooting 8-for-11 from the field and 7-for-10 from the line. This guy is one of the most underrated players in the league, and his dirty work isn’t that attractive for making a hype around it.

Holmes scores 14.4 points with 9 boards, and 1.7 steals, all that while shooting 64.7% from the field. He is very useful on both ends of the floor, with his defense being quite solid, to be honest.

San Antonio Spurs (23-21, -140) are in a dangerous place, winning just one of the last six matches. Gregg Popovich’s side entered the slump in the most important part of the year, and instead of shifting into a higher gear, the Spurs are struggling to provide average performances.

Another troubling factor for San Antonio is that they aren’t using a favorable schedule. The second game against the Kings will be the sixth in a row at home, and after that one, the Spurs have three more. So far, the team from Texas already recorded four losses, and that is terrible when looking at the overall situation.

Dejounte Muray had a team-high against the Kings, 23 points, Derrick White 19, while DeMar DeRozan scored 17, the same as Jacob Poeltl, who had 11 boards and three blocks too. Spurs went to the foul like just 14 times, which suggests that they weren’t aggressive enough.

Head to Head Games

This will be the second of three matches between the Kings and the Spurs in this campaign. As said previously, Monday’s game ended 132-115 for Sacramento. The key sequence of the game was the second period, which ended in Kings’ favor, 41-29.

Prediction

The Spurs are in the middle of a cold streak, and despite what you might think, betting on the Kings in this match is a good choice. We, too made a mistake two nights ago suggesting to put money on the hosts’ win and thinking that Popovich’s team isn’t this bad, But right now, they are, while on the other side, we have the Kings fired-up, and excellent.

Pick: Kings win