basketball | Wednesday, January 25, 2023 11:54 AM

Sacramento Kings vs Toronto Raptors Best Bet: Another Shootout in Sactown

Milan Stanojic

Sacramento Kings vs Toronto Raptors Best Bet: Wednesday, January 25th

The Sacramento Kings take on the Toronto Raptors tonight at Golden 1 Center in their second clash of the season. The Kings have been in phenomenal form recently, but the Raptors have also picke dup the pace scoring-wise. Have a look at the article below for my best vale bet of the night.

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Sacramento Kings vs Toronto Raptors Preview
Sacramento Kings vs Toronto Raptors Best Bet

Sacramento Kings vs Toronto Raptors Preview

Thu, Jan 26th 03:00 (UK time)

It’s been a phenomenal season for the Sacramento Kings, a team that last made the playoffs in the 2005/06 season, sitting in 3rd place in the west right now with a 27-19 record. They have been playing some very good basketball both at home and on the road, having won 7 of their last 10 games. They are coming off a dominant 133-100 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday and will continue their homestand against the Raptors. Their injury report is looking very good at the moment, with just Chimezie Metu listed as ‘questionable’ with a knee injury.

Head coach Mike Brown has turned the underachieving Kings into a powerhouse this season, and he did it in three ways: offence, offence and offence, The Kings have been the best and most efficient offensive side in the NBA this year, ranking top of the league in offensive rating, points per game and 2-point percentage. They also shoot a lot of threes and make a high percentage, whilst averaging 15.2 fastbreak points per game with 27.2 assists. Defence has been an issue, as the Kings have allowed an average of 116.2 points per game this year, but it has resulted in a lot of their games becoming shootouts.

On the flip side, the Raptors haven’t been as successful, with a record of 21 wins and 27 losses, they are 12th in the east. It’s not all bad, as they are coming off a 125-116 home win against the New York Knicks, but their performance on the road has been quite poor. With a 6-15 record, they have covered the spread in just 9 of those games. However, their form has improved recently, and I see some solid value in backing them to play well. Not necessarily to cover the spread tonight, but…

The Toronto Raptors have averaged 120.0 points over their latest 5-game stretch, and they are playing a side who don’t concern themselves too much with playing defence. They have been able to get to the free-throw line a lot and despite not being the most efficient offence, they have been putting up points. All of their scorers have been in terrific form recently, and Fred VanVleet is coming off a 28-points game, with Gary Trent and Pascal Siakam coming in as well with 24 apiece.

Sacramento Kings vs Toronto Raptors Best Bet

The first encounter between these two teams was a 124-123 win for the Kings at Scotiabank Arena in mid-Decmber. But that’s not the only reason why we are going with this selection. Both teams are scoring very well at the moment and aren’t huge fans of playing defence. What if I told you that 64% of the Kings’ home games have gone over? What if I told you that 62% of the Raptors’ road games have gone over this year?

The line is set at 238.5 and I see this is rather low. The Kings have frequently been given 245-point lines and this one is very reachable. They use their fast-paced offence and scoring to win games, and the Raptors can be rather easily sucked into shootouts. We have seen this in recent games and with the way their stars have been scoring, what’s stopping them from getting to 120 points again?