NBA Betting Picks: Sacramento Kings at Indiana Pacers

Added on Mar 25, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

NBA betting opportunity for Friday night in a non conference matchup between the Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings. Indiana has been up and down this season but are currently holding on to the 8th and final playoff spot in the East. Sacramento is well off the pace in the West–and almost certainly on their way out of town with a prospective move to Anaheim or San Jose currently on the table.

Sacramento Kings at Indiana Pacers
March 25, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

Kings are a mess at the moment and enter this game having lost 7 of their last 10, though they are coming off a SU win. The only goal that the Kings have this year is to avoid finishing with the worst record in the Western Conference and possibly the entire NBA. That’s not a particularly good motivation–you’ll see a team trying to avoid a winless season in the NFL or an all time record losing streak in other sports play hard but seldom one that is trying it avoid just another degree of ‘bad’. To their credit, the Kings haven’t been a complete doormat and have been showing a decent effort at times as the season progresses–they simply don’t have the talent and particularly on the offensive end to hang with anyone. They’re at their worst in uptempo games like we expect to see here. Against teams that allow more than 99 PPG Sacto is 14-21 ATS on the year. Against teams that score more than 99 PPG they’re 15-23 ATS.

Indiana is at least ‘treading water’ at this point going 5-5 in their last 10 games and with the dismal level of play in the bottom of the Eastern Conference table that may be enough to get them to the postseason. Indiana has taken advantage of weaker opponents this year–as a home chalk of -6′ to -9 point they’re 7-0 SU/5-1 ATS. They’re 19-13 ATS against opponents with losing records in all situations. And, for some reason, they show up and play great basketball on Friday nights more often than not going 8-3-1 ATS in their last 12 games. Sacramento playing out a long road trip in a long season that could be their last in California’s capital.

Bet Indiana Pacers -7 over Sacramento Kings