NBA - 503 Sacramento Kings @ 504 New York Knicks
Projected Line: NY Knicks by 15 points
The Knicks are coming from a home win last night against Milwaukee. They were down early in the game, but suddenly their defense started to show more effort and they were able to shutdown the Bucks's offense at the end to get the win. The NY team also looked decent on their interior offense, especially Amare Stoudemire who looked very solid, while they shot just 9-28 FG on spot ups. Sacramento is coming from a loss in Philadelphia, where tension has begun to rise again between DeMarcus Cousins and his coach Keith Smart:
The reporter asked him what the Kings could do to stop falling behind by double digits. “Go ask coach (Keith) Smart,” DeMarcus Cousins said. “I don’t know. Ask Smart.”
Sacramento had a really slow start against the Sixers, but they played a phenomenal third quarter, just to struggle once again in the fourth quarter. The reason for their inconsistent offense is their lack of offensive flow. The only way Sacramento can be efficient on offense is really via transitions. They scored 21 fast break points against Philadelphia with 9-14 FG on transitions. Their problem was the rest: poor pick and roll ball handler plays, poor spot ups, while their post up plays has been decent thanks to Cousins. Also the Kings's bench has been terrible with no flow over the last two games.
Tonight, with the Kings playing at NY against the Knicks, Tyson Chandler will defend DeMarcus Cousins and so, I don't see the Kings's starting center having a big game today. The Knicks are #1 in the league in turnover ratio, so I don't see how Sacramento will have a lot of chances to have transition plays today. Therefore, their offense will simply be terrible today. On the other hand, the Knicks's offense will have some super edges today against Sacramento. They will have for example a big edge in the pick and rolls, as Sacramento is #30 in the league by allowing 0.92 PPP.
In the game played at Sacramento between these two teams earlier on the season, the Knicks lost by 1 point on a buzzer beat shot. That was a game where Carmelo Anthony, Raymond Felton and Amare Stoudemire didn't have, so tonight with these three players on the court, I expect the Knicks to absolutely pound the Kings tonight and get an easy blowout win tonight. I'm taking the NY team tonight.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 514 New York Knicks (-11,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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