Sacramento Kings at Charlotte Hornets Pick – Odds and Against the Spread Predictions

The Sacramento Kings (23-21) will travel to the Queen City to take on the Charlotte Hornets (20-21) at the Spectrum Center a cross-conference collision on Thursday, January 17th, 2019. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 PM and is set to be broadcast on FSN. These two teams last met five days ago in Sacramento where the Kings would emerge victorious by a score of 104-97 to produce a narrow cover as a 5.5-point favorite. The teams have split the last two meetings between each other with a win to both sides, but Sacramento has covered in both occasions.

Sacramento Kings at Charlotte Hornets Overview

Sacramento Kings

The Kings enter into this contest in excellent form as they have won their last three matches overall. Over this span, they have also covered in each of these victories. Most recently, the Kings were on the court three days ago at home when they hosted the Portland Trailblazers and defeated them 115-107 to produce an easy cover as a two-point favorite.

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets come into this fixture off the heels of a statement win against the San Antonio Spurs on the road, three days ago. As a 7.5-point underdog, the Hornets would earn just their sixth win away from The Hive this year and defeat the Spurs 108-93 snapping a three-game losing streak both straight-up and against the spread in the process.

Reasons To Avoid Sacramento

Bias can easily be formed here on the Kings as they own the recent win between the two sides less than a week ago. When you couple this with their win-streak as a whole both against the spread and straight-up as of late, this propensity is enhanced. However, this is Sacramento’s first game on the East Coast since they finished their home-stand and it is questioned whether or not this team has any travel rust or jet-lag to undermine their game here. It doesn’t help that the Kings are 9-11 SU on the road this season.

Reasons To Back Charlotte

The Hornets play exceptional basketball on their own court as they are 14-8 SU in Charlotte. However, with this home court advantage comes added momentum from what has to be classed as a huge win against a distinguished opponent. Moreover, Charlotte owns an edge in the turnover department, and they have considerable advantages in both defense and free throw shooting. Sacramento’s defense sits 26th overall giving up 115.4 points per game. Charlotte, on the other hand, gives up 2.6 points per contest as they surrender 111.8 points per outing (20th in the NBA). Most notably, Charlotte hits a ninth-ranked 78.9% of their free throw attempts; Sacramento sits toward the bottom in this category as they land 70.8% of their shots from the charity stripe (28th in the NBA).