basketball | Tuesday, February 14, 2023 11:00 AM (Revised at: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 11:01 AM)

Phoenix Suns vs Sacramento Kings Best Bet: Suns Can Hold Off Kings At Home

Sam Cox

Phoenix Suns vs Sacramento Kings Best Bet: Tuesday, February 14th

The 32-24 Sacramento Kings are on the road against the 31-27 Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night. This game has significant implications in the battle for playoff seeding in the Western Conference, with Phoenix eyeing up a top two spot in the standings after their blockbuster trade for Kevin Durant.

The Suns are on a 10-3 stretch, with marked improvement from Chris Paul and Devin Booker now healthy. The Kings have gone 5-5 over their last 10, and place 17th in net rating this month.
Durant is still out for the Suns despite partaking in his first practice with Phoenix this week. Landry Shamet and Cam Payne are also sidelined. Both Malik Monk and KZ Okpala are unavailable for Sacramento.

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Phoenix Suns vs Sacramento Kings Preview
Phoenix Suns vs Sacramento Kings Best Bet

Phoenix Suns vs Sacramento Kings Preview

Wed, Feb 15. 02:00 (UK time)

While the Kings are one of the success stories of the season, their Achilles heel has been facing other good teams. Sacramento is only 11-18 against teams with a record above .500. Consistency has been an issue for the Suns, but they are 17-18 in such matchups, and appear to have a higher ceiling than the Kings, even before Durant makes his debut.

In February, the Kings are a bottom five team on the defensive end. The Suns offence has been far from its best, but the backcourt tandem of Paul and Booker is a very difficult matchup for this Sacramento defence. These Kings are simply lacking in plus-defenders, meaning their offence has to be elite to compete with the top teams.

Fortunately, their offence has generally sustained that level. Even after trading away Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, it will be hard to be quite as efficient against this Phoenix defence, though. Deandre Ayton is a good anchor in the paint, and can slow down the scoring of De’Aaron Fox at the basket and Domantas Sabonis on the block. Josh Okogie and Torrey Craig are solid options on the perimeter, too.

Phoenix Suns vs Sacramento Kings Best Bet

The Suns have a 13-9 record against the spread as a home favourite. Despite owning an impressive ATS mark on the season, there is a sense the books have begun to adjust for this high-flying Kings team. Playing on the road, and with such a mediocre record against contending teams, Sacramento deserves to be underdogs in this one.

This spread is small enough to feel confident taking the Suns to win the game. Whether it ends up in overtime or the Kings play the foul game (Phoenix is 11th in free throw percentage), it is still very easy to cover for the Suns.

Paul, Booker and Ayton is a formidable triumvirate, and they still have enough supporting players around them to win games like this.