NBA Picks: Charlotte Bobcats at Sacramento Kings
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Sacramento Kings are set to host the Charlotte Bobcats Tuesday night, as the two teams face off for the first time this season. Tip-off is set for 10:00 ET at Arco Arena.
The Bobcats are playing the first game of six game road trip, that could really tell us a lot about where this team is right now. Charlotte will try and bounce back from a 103-87 loss at home to the Hawks on Saturday, but the Bobcats are just 5-14 on the road this season.
The Kings come into the game tonight off one of their best performance all season, as they went into Portland and beat the Trail Blazers 96-81 Monday night. It was just the second win in the last nine games for the Kings, but they have been playing much better lately, as their previous four games were decided by seven points or less.
Taking a look at the NBA spreads for tonight’s game, oddsmakers have the Bobcats favored by 1.5-points over the Kings with the total set at 191.5.
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While the Bobcats have struggled on the road this season, they are 2-2 in their last four games away from home, including a win at Chicago, a four point loss in overtime at Philadelphia, and a five points loss at Boston.
Charlotte will have to get things turned around without Tyrus Thomas, who has really been a nice spark off the bench for the Bobcats this season. Charlotte is just 2-6 this season when Thomas doesn’t play, and aren’t expected to get Thomas back until March.
That puts a lot of pressure on the starters to really play well, and that mainly involves the trio of Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace, and D.J. Augustin. In the Bobcats last game against the Hawks, Augustin had a team-high 20 points, but Jackson managed just 10 points and Wallace only scored seven. The Kings are giving up 102.4 points a game this season, so don’t be surprised to see a much better game out of both Jackson and Wallace tonight.
Don’t look to much into the Kings holding the Trail Blazers to just 81 points, as Portland is really going through a tough stretch dealing with some key injuries. Even though the Kings defense might not be as good as it looked last night, they still have the offensive talent to win this game.
Tyreke Evans scored a game-high 26 points to go with his six assists against Portland, and has really stepped up his game lately. Evans had 35 against the Warriors on Friday, and is averaging 23.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.8 assists over his last five games.
Evans was just one of five Kings players who scored in double figures against the Trail Blazers, and if they can continue to get that kind of balance to go with Evans, they are going to start winning more games in the second half of the season.
I think the Kings are playing some of their best basketball of the season, and are about to break out and start finishing on the winning side of things, making them at the play tonight at +1.5.
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