NBA Previews for March 18, 2017.
Sacramento Kings (27-41) at Oklahoma City Thunder (39-29), 3 p.m. EST
Line: Thunder -12.5. Total 216.
After Sacramento lost DeMarcus Cousins during the All-Star break in a trade to the New Orleans Pelicans, the suddenly-shorthanded Kings surprised most people by rising up in their first game without him. Sacramento had a 116-100 victory against the Denver Nuggets as a 6.5 point home dog.
That was the good news.
The bad news is the Kings followed that up with 8 straight losses. To their credit, they have competed hard in those games and lost two of them in overtime.
Sacramento has now won two in a row after the 8-game losing streak, beating the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns, the fourth and third worst teams in the league, respectively. Hey, you got to take the wins wherever you can find them.
The reason the seventh worst team in the league needs to take a win whenever they can earn one is because they are not going to win one Saturday afternoon against an Oklahoma City team who is hitting their stride again after a 4-game losing streak last week.
What is the reason OKC has hit their stride? Well, Russell Westbrook, of course.
Westbrook is dishing out dimes again in the last four games, earning four consecutive triple-doubles in those four wins. The Thunder beat three of the top 10 teams in the league and their average margin of victory was 14+ points in those four games.
Westbrook is seven triple-doubles shy of matching the record of 41 triple-doubles in a season by Oscar Robertson during the 1961-62 season. Robertson averaged a triple-double that season, averaging 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists per game that season. Remarkably, Robertson just missed averaging a triple-double in each of his first five seasons in the league.
Westbrook is poised to become the second player in league history to average a triple-double this season because with just 14 games left, he is averaging 31.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 10.4 assists per game going into Saturday’s action.
Westbrook should get his fifth straight triple-double against the Kings as the Thunder should get win number 40 on the season as they inch closer to clinching a playoff spot.
As far as the total goes, I generally lean to taking unders in afternoon games in the NBA. It is a “brewers7 handicapping theory” that I will bring up from time to time, especially during the playoffs. The under is 27-19 this season in the 46 games that started at 3:35 p.m. local time at the site of the game.
NBA previews, Game #2:
Portland Trail Blazers (30-37) at Atlanta Hawks (37-31), 6 p.m. EST
Line: Hawks -3. Total 214.
We all know how good Damian Lillard (fifth season) and C.J. McCollum (fourth season) have been for the Trail Blazers in their short, but productive, careers.
Lillard has average at least 19 points per game in all five seasons he has been in the league and is averaging a career high 26.5 points per game this season. McCollum came into his own in his third season, averaging 20.8 points per game and has improved upon that mark this season by averaging 23.3 points per game.
Portland has another secret weapon you may not know about. The “Bosnian Beast”, Jusuf Nurkic, is a rookie center who came to the Blazers at the trade deadline from the Denver Nuggets for Mason Plumlee.
The Blazers have gone 7-5 since Nurkic has joined the team and is averaging 14.1 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.5 steals per game. Portland is now just 2.5 games back of Denver for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Evan Turner returns for the Blazers after a 15-game absence due to a broken right hand.
I am not crazy about this game at all from a handicapping perspective. The Hawks been flaky all season and have not been a strong home team (just 19-16), so I cannot argue with taking a shot at a Portland victory here. I also have a small lean to the over as the Blazers are 6-3-1 to the over their last 10 games and seem primed to continue that over stretch for at least a few more games.
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Look for more NBA Previews for Saturday on the GMS site.
