The Sacramento Kings look to get back on track when they host the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night. Here’s a complete preview, including betting odds and free NBA picks.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021 – 10:00 PM EST at Golden 1 Center
The Trail Blazers opened at -2.5 at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review) and FiveThirtyEight
The Trail Blazers (10-8 SU and 8-9-1 ATS) have been inconsistent, so maybe we should just insta-fade them as 2.5-point road faves. I thought that the Trail Blazers would be fine after their October 29 home game against the Clippers. Damian Lillard went just 6-for-35 from beyond the arc to start the season but he went 5-for-7 that night to lead his team to a 111-92 victory as 3.5-point home favorites on the closing NBA lines.
Lillard was expected to regress to the mean but Portland is just 7-6 SU and 5-7-1 ATS since. It’s a small sample size at 17 games, but Lillard’s 0.0 Box Plus/Minus is his career-low. It seems that this roster isn’t built for his talents – with Jusuf Nurkic (plus-1.5 Box Plus/Minus) and Cody Zeller (minus-1.3 Box Plus/Minus) at center, neither a threat from distance.
The Kings (6-12 SU, 7-11 ATS) fired head coach Luke Walton on Sunday and named Alvin Gentry interim coach. Walton led them to 31-41 records in each of his first two seasons but didn’t take a step forward this year and was let go after losing seven of their last eight games under him. Sacramento lost 102-94 as 2.5-point home faves against a depleted Philadelphia team last Monday in Gentry’s first game in charge. The Kings have now lost four straight games and they’re 2-7 in their last nine home games.
I’m putting the Under in our NBA picks for Wednesday’s matchup. Both teams run the floor at a relatively fast pace but the Under is 11-6-1 for the Kings and 9-9 for the Trail Blazers. Portland will play the second game of a back-to-back after last night’s 119-100 home win against Denver as 10-point home faves and they had to travel while Sacramento has a new head coach that players still need to get used to in Alvin Gentry and they rank 17th in the NBA with just 105.3 points per 100 possessions.
NBA Pick: Under 226 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.