10:05 pm
April 2

Lakers @ Kings

Who will WIN this matchup?

Los Angeles Lakers (30-18)

@ Sacramento Kings (22-26)

 

Current odds:

Los Angeles Lakers: (+165)

Sacramento Kings: (-185)

 

• The spread for the game is Sacramento by 4.5 points.

• The game pits, as you might expect, an upward-trending team that’s won five of six against an in-state rival that’s dropped five of seven. But it’s Sacramento that’s the hotter of the two in this case, playing an improved brand of ball the Kings hope to demonstrate not only to the defending NBA champions but to another of the league’s top teams — the Milwaukee Bucks — on Saturday night.

• The fun was temporarily paused Wednesday when the Kings lost the second of a two-game set with the Spurs, watching a five-game winning streak end in a 120-106 road defeat. Now Sacramento, which hasn’t made the playoffs since 2006, must avoid something that occurred earlier this season. That’s when, just when things were looking up with seven wins in eight games, the Kings plummeted into a nine-game losing streak that landed them back among the bottom teams in the West.

• The first surprise came almost a month ago, also in Sacramento, when the Kings took advantage of the absence of LeBron James and Anthony Davis to outlast the Lakers 123-120. Harrison Barnes’ 20 points and go-ahead layup with 30.1 seconds remaining led that win. James sat out that game with a sore left ankle on the eve of the All-Star Game. This time around, his ankle injury is much more serious, as he has missed six straight and could be out the entire month of April with a sprain.

• The Lakers have floundered with both James and Davis off the court. They’ve gone 2-4 since James joined his star teammate on the sideline last month and 9-11 since Davis went out with a calf injury in February. The Lakers are coming off a 2-2 homestand, with the wins coming against Cleveland and Orlando. The stretch began with an eight-point loss to Philadelphia and ended Wednesday with a 15-point loss to the Bucks.

5/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
Sacramento Kings
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