Both the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings enter Thursday night’s matchup with respective three-game winning streaks. The Hawks need to string together more victories on the road to prove that they’re not pretenders to the Eastern Conference crown, while the Kings are looking for more wins as well, given that they’re currently in the mix for a postseason berth.
[sc:NBA250 ]Unfortunately, only one team will leave Sleep Train Arena with their positive run still intact. Will it be Atlanta, or Sacramento? Let’s take a closer look at this intriguing matchup below. Afterwards, catch more of Thursday’s NBA viewing and betting action alike with our previews for Clippers vs. Cavaliers and Spurs vs. Suns.
[sc:NBAArticles ]Atlanta Hawks vs. Sacramento Kings Preview
Where: Sleep Train Arena, Sacramento
When: Thursday, January 21, 8:00 PM ET
Line: Atlanta Hawks (+1) at Sacramento Kings (-1); total: 218.5 – view all NBA lines
Betting on the Atlanta Hawks (25-17)
[sc:NBA240banner ]The Atlanta Hawks got their way against another middling Western Conference team on Wednesday as they held on for the 104-98 win against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Hawks applied their true-and-tested formula of a balanced attack that made them the East’s best team last regular season. Four of their starters scored in double-digits on Wednesday. Paul Millsap and breakout role player Kent Bazemore scored 23 points apiece to put Atlanta just 4.5 games behind Cleveland for the top spot of the Eastern Conference.
The first game of the Hawks’ four-game West Coast swing ended rather well, and they’ll need to improve their record away from home indeed to truly contend in the much-improved East. They’re only 11-10 on the road, with seven of those 10 losses coming at the hands of their foes within the conference.
Luckily, a four-game win streak by the end of Thursday night is more of a likelihood than not, considering that Atlanta has a 15-game winning streak going against the Kings. Even better, the Hawks have not lost in Sacramento since the 2008 season as well, having won all seven previous contests in Cali’s capital and going 6-1 ATS.
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Betting on the Sacramento Kings (17-23)
After laying a 112-93 smackdown on the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, the Sacramento Kings have suddenly taken sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference standings. The Kings, surprisingly, have also won six of their last nine games (SU/ATS).
Many thought that the unholy matrimony between head coach George Karl and star big-man DeMarcus Cousins would further implode this season. On the contrary, Cousins has actually been his normal, dominant self. This was recently evident once more based on his 36-point, 16-rebound outing against the Lakers.
But Sacramento isn’t only fueled of late by Cousins, as even crafty veteran point guard Rajon Rondo has found his groove within the team’s offense. Rondo had 11 points and a whopping 17 assists on Wednesday, the same number that the entire Lakers team had all night. Furthermore, he’s currently this NBA season’s assists leader with an average 11.6 assists per game – two assists more than the next player on the list.
It’s no surprise then that the Kings are fourth in the NBA in assists (24.6 apg), and that they’re also third overall in scoring with 106.3 points per contest. However, their defense is still rather abysmal, surrendering a couple of points more than they’re actually putting up for the league’s worst mark of 108.3 points allowed per game.
If you’re still uncertain about banking on Sacramento to pull out wins, at least you can count their games to be high-scoring affairs. During the nine-game span we mentioned earlier, the total also went over on six occasions.
Writer’s Prediction
The Kings snap their long-running skid against the Hawks at last, 118-112.
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