Sacramento Kings (24-33) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (36-22)
Date/Time: Thursday, February 27, 2020 8:00 PM
The suddenly hot Sacramento Kings head to America’s Heartland to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are also hot as of late.
On the season Sacramento is 29-27-1 ATS with an O/U record of 30-27 and Oklahoma City is 38-20 ATS with an O/U record of 28-29.
The Kings have won three games in a row and in one of them beat the L.A. Clippers. While the team is nine games under .500 they are still in the playoff picture only four games out of the eighth spot in the Western Conference.
The Thunder are one better than the Kings in that they have won four in a row. They are one of the surprises of the league this season and they are in the sixth spot in the West.
These teams have split the two matchups this season with OKC winning the last game and both of them were in Sacramento.
On the season the Thunder are 19-12 at home and the Kings are 12-18 on the road.
Solid All-Around Game
While the Kings were facing the team with the fewest wins in the NBA in their last game, they played a solid all-around game in a 112-94 win over the Golden State Warriors. Sacto jumped out to a 12-point halftime lead and they shot a legit 52.6% from the floor while holding the Warriors to 44.3% shooting.
Four starters for the Kings and six players scored in double figures with Harrison Barnes and De’Aaron Fox each going for 21 points.
Sacramento is led by Buddy Hield (20.1 ppg) and he went for 19 points in the win over the Warriors after tying a season-low with seven points in his previous game. Fox (19.9 ppg) is the second leading scorer and surpassed his season average in his last three games. Barnes (14.9 ppg) has been up and down lately and in the first game of the current three-game win streak, he went for a season-high 32 points.
Offense Is on Track
The Thunder are led by their defense and while their offense ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of ppg (111.2 ppg) they have averaged 122.8 ppg over their last four games.
In OKC’s last game they were on the road and beat the Chicago Bulls 124-122. While they allowed Chicago to shoot 53.6% from the floor they shot 55.3% and shot 46.7% from 3-pt range. In the game the Thunder were led by Danilo Gallinari with 24 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Dennis Schroder came off the bench to score 21 points.
Gilgeous-Alexander (19.4 ppg), Gallinari (19.2 ppg), and Schroder (19.1 ppg) are the three leading scorers for the Thunder.
Chris Paul (17.5 ppg) has had a great season in his first one in Oklahoma City and after totaling 52 points in two games he has totaled 31 points in his last two games where he has 19 assists.
The Thunder’s last game against the Kings was in late January beating them 120-110.
Our Prediction
Not only have the Kings won three in a row but they covered the spread in all of those games as well.
The Thunder have been one of the best betting teams at 38-20 ATS on the season and they had covered the spread in three straight games before failing to do so in the 2-point win over the Bulls where they were a 7.5-point road favorite.
The Kings are playing with confidence and they will give the Thunder a good game. However, OKC is a tad hotter and at home and while they will not blow out Sacto they will win and cover for their fifth win in a row.