KINGS (+6) at THUNDER (239.5), 8 p.m.
Pick: Kings (+6)
How about that game Friday night in Oklahoma City between the Thunder and the Jazz? Led by Paul George’s 45 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, the Thunder (38-20) pulled out a 148-147 victory in double overtime. However, after that kind of barn-burner, we think there’s value in fading the Thunder on the tail end of the back-to-back Saturday against Sacramento.
Like the Kings (30-28), Utah is a team on the playoff bubble in the Western Conference. Those are teams that we want to buy coming out of the break, inching closer to the final month of the regular season. We’ve already seen two other teams on the west’s playoff bubble -- Lakers and Spurs -- cover as underdogs in their first games back. The Kings did so easily at Golden State on Thursday and Utah stayed inside the number despite losing in Oklahoma City Friday. Sacramento has been great against the spread all season (35-22-1) and the Kings should continue to get up for these games against the cream of the crop in the West.
ROCKETS (+9) at WARRIORS (234), 8:30 p.m.
Pick: Rockets (+9)
If you’ve followed along with our NBA picks this season, you’ve probably noticed we love betting against Golden State. That’s because the Warriors (42-16) are expensive in the point-spread market in almost every game they play. Vegas doesn’t let bettors repeatedly back the best teams in the league and turn a profit. That would explain Golden State’s 24-33-1 mark against the spread, which is the second worst in the NBA. Now we get almost 10 points with the Rockets (33-25), who took the Warriors to a seventh game in the Western Conference Finals last year? Yes please.