The Detroit Pistons continue their string of California teams against the Sacramento Kings, only they get to play them at home after finishing their West Coast trip. The Kings are also looking to finish a road trip of their own as soon as possible, as they’ve failed to get much out of it.
Kings at Pistons
Spread: Detroit -8.5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 197 points (-110)
From bad to worse for Sacramento Kings
The losing streak extended to six games, but what’s worse, the performances are trending in a wrong direction. Instead of building something over time, these Kings are roaming, searching and seem even more distant to their goals than before they started. After at least competing during the first week, they are now getting blown out in less than a half. In Boston, the Kings lost 86-113, and this was the third time in as many games that they failed to score at least 90. This has dipped their season scoring average to 93.1 points per game. In today’s NBA, not even the Utah Jazz can win by scoring so few.
The competitiveness lasted for about 15 minutes on Wednesday. The Celtics couldn’t create any separation up the 31-30 lead, as the Kings made shots. However, they can’t do it constantly. The Celtics went on a 11-1 run over the next four minutes and slowly increased their lead to 15 by mid third, when another cold time for the Kings took the game away for good. Sacramento shot only 6-of-20 from the three-point range, a part of a 43 percent shooting night. Instead of making up for it on the glass, they were also doubled on the rebounds. Boston had 52 and the Kings on 26 total rebounds for the game. If not for the Buddy Hield’s 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and 7 rebounds, this would be ugly. Oh, wait, it was ugly anyway. At least, for once, the vets did their part. Hill scored 10 points and scored two of the three long ones, and Z-Bo scored 16 points in 23 minutes. Both shot 50 percent. However, all the youngs have led them down. Fox, Bogdanovic, Cauley-Stein, and others shouldn’t get paid for the game in Boston. Oh, and being young shouldn’t be an excepted excuse – the Celtics are actually the younger team on average. But mostly, it’s not an excuse for playing at such a slow tempo, which compounds their struggles shooting the ball.
This ends the short road trip for the Kings and they’ll get another three days rest to prepare for what’s ahead of them at home – OKC and Philly, two franchises who had built in different ways through the draft and trades – so perhaps this is a window to their own future.
Place: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Date/Time: Saturday, November 4th, 2017. 7:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: FS Detroit, NBCSCA
The Pistons spoil the good win with a collapse to the Lakers
Stan Van Gundy warned his players not to get complacent after winning two games against Western Conference powerhouses, the Clippers, and the Warriors. He’s seen it before. Now, he has another example to show to his future squads. The Detroit Pistons looked nothing like a team who took the get away from the Warriors, thinking that their less talented rival will lay over and let them win. Instead, the Lakers blew them out 93-113.
After first six or seven minutes of relative parity, as the first reserves began to enter the game, the Lakers started pulling away. The lead would grow to 13 by halftime and by 15 by the end of the third. The Pistons never made much of a run, mostly trading baskets with the Lakers, before Van Gundy decided it’s time to wrap up the road trip as it is with 5 minutes left on the clock. Lackluster as you’ll ever see, the Detroit Pistons broke one team record, albeit not one they’ll be proud of. Over the 48 minutes of the game, they attempted just 3 free throws, and made just one. If there’s a better signal of your team being not aggressive enough, please let me know. It’s not that they were shooting the lights out from the mid-range so that they didn’t have to drive. Avery Bradley was just 4-of-17 and missed all of his attempts from the deep. Others were only slightly better. Tobias Harris led the team in scoring once again, scoring 18 points on 19 shots, and Reggie Jackson had a solid game offensively, picking up a nice stat line of 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. He was playing lazy defense though, so there were at least two instances where the coach had to pull him to the bench for it. Drummond had a silent double-double of 10 points and 12 boards, although he did pick up a nice 5 assists.
Jon Leuer turned an ankle and won’t play tonight against Milwaukee, making him doubtful to dress for the next game as well. The Pistons had 3 full days to prepare for this back-to-back set, so they should be too tired.
Sacramento Kings at Detroit Pistons Game Trends & Prediction
The Sacramento Kings are a sorry bunch right now, and it’s never a good thing to hunt for streak’s end, especially not when the team in question don’t show that they really care about the outcome. At this point, being 2-6 against the spread, the Kings are practically on my blacklist. This means that under no circumstances will I accept any value on this team. They have to cover and break the streak. Total points are ok. They are 3-5 for the season, and are obviously a better option on the unders on most night. However, they can surprise when the shots fall in, so the overs are not out of question.
The Pistons have been a moneymaker, going 6-2 ATS. However, they followed two nice three-game win streaks with a slip against poor teams (Sixers, Lakers), and the other time they’ve come close to failing to cover was a tight win over the Knicks, another poor team. The Kings certainly fit the bill, so keep in mind that bad teams seem to draw the worst from the Pistons. As for the total points are concerned, the Pistons haven’t been predictable. They’ve gone 4-4 this season, alternating overs and unders each game.
Admi-Rank: The Sacramento Kings continue to find new depths of misery and are ranked worse than any other team in the West. Their downtrend is a true sign of the recent form. On the other hand, the Pistons have slid only slightly, as they followed up a terrific period with an ugly loss to a bad team. Losing another to the Kings would surely be more disturbing.
The Pistons are playing poorly against the bad teams, but the question is not why, but why are we surprised. They weren’t supposed to be very good in the first place, and I tend to believe that while we might have underestimated them a bit, they aren’t going to go from a lousy team to a contender. To put it in another way, it’s still too early in the season to jump to conclusions. Of course, the answer to these questions won’t be answered in this game either, as the Kings have only the outside chance of pulling an upset.
The books have set the spread at 8.5 points, which is fine by me. There’s no value on the home side with it, and I’m not touching the Kings with a stick right now. I’m much more interested in the over points here, as the bar has been set too low, at 197 points. Yes, the Kings are playing slowly and struggling to score at times, but they won’t be scoring 80 each night. The Pistons will be looking to relax after a tough game against Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, and they tend to play bad defense in such situations.
My Pick: (no wager on the spread)
Total: Over 197 points (-110)
