This should be a close and competitive game between two of the top teams in the NBA at the moment. Every time these two teams get together, it will certainly be noted that they traded their star players for each other, as Domantas Sabonis and Tyrese Haliburton switched places several seasons ago, and it has worked out for both teams. Both Sabonis and Haliburton have been leading the way for their respective teams this season, which should provide us with a quality contest here on Friday night in Indiana as two of the top teams in the league get together.
Indiana and Sacramento enter this contest with similar records and they find themselves in similar positions in their respective conferences heading into the second half of the regular season. Sacramento comes into this game with 27 victories through their first 48 games of the 2023-24 season. Indiana also comes into this game with 27 victories through their first 49 games of the regular season. Both of them will be looking to pick up victory number 28 with a solid performance here on Friday night, as they both look to break losing streaks, and get right back into the win column in the process.
Past Prediction The last two predictions have not gone well as the underdogs ended up winning the game out right instead of the favorites covering the spread like predicted. It has certainly been a weird week betting on the NBA as both Milwaukee and Philadelphia have lost to Western Conference competition while being the better team and going into the game as the betting favorites. Sacramento will look to avoid that happening for a third consecutive night, as they look to pick up a victory, and become the third consecutive team from the West to beat a team from the East.
History Between These Two Teams Like every other team that plays in separate conferences, they will only meet twice in the regular season. This game on Friday night in Indiana will be the second meeting of the season between the Indiana Pacers and the Sacramento Kings and it’ll be the final meeting of the season unless they meet in the NBA finals. The last time these two teams met in Sacramento the game was in the middle of January, so these two teams locked up not long ago so they should be pretty familiar with each other still when they play this game on Friday night. It was the Indiana Pacers that came away with the victory on the road. Now Indiana will play this game at home and look to complete the series sweep of the Sacramento Kings here on Friday night as they look to keep the momentum rolling on a successful season.
Tips For Betting Indiana has been successful at home this season posting a record of 16-9 in 25 games. Meanwhile when they are favored to win the game they have a record of 12-8. When playing at home and favored to win they come into this game with a record of 9-6. For Sacramento like most teams they have been average away from home, posting a record of 13-11. When they are underdogs they possess a record of 5-7 and when they are road underdogs they come into this game with a record of 4-6. Despite the lack of success away from home, Sacramento is favored in this game, and when they are favored to win a game, they come into this one with a record of 22-12. However, on the road that record drops to 9-5. Indiana is 7-3 as a home underdog and they’ve had plenty of at home this season.
Today’s Predictions Both of these teams find themselves in a position to make a postseason run so far this season and they will look to further add to their record with a quality victory over the other year on Friday night in the Midwest. Sacramento and Indiana both find themselves on losing streaks entering this game on Friday night and both of them will look to break those streaks with a victory against each other here in this one. As both teams come into this game, looking to bounce back from losses in their previous contest.
As the Sacramento Kings dropped their last game against the Miami Heat on the road by 9 points and it was the first loss on their current five game road trip. As they have posted a respectable 4-1 record since hitting the road on January 25th against the Golden State Warriors. Meanwhile for the Indiana Pacers they will be happy to return to the friendly confines of Bankers Life Fieldhouse after losing on the road to a Boston Celtics team that has hardly lost at home this season. Indiana and Boston seem to be the two top threats in the Eastern Conference at the moment as they have gone back-and-forth in multiple games this season.
This is going to be a competitive contest between these two teams much like their first meeting of the season was out on the West Coast in Sacramento. We likely see a similar scoreline as both of those teams combined for 247 points in a back-and-forth contest that the Indiana Pacers came out on top of back in January. Indiana ended up winning that game by five points when it was all said and done and what was one of the most thrilling games of the regular season so far. These two teams have two of the best offensive games in the league this season, and you can expect another high-scoring affair here in this one with them both relatively healthy coming into this contest.
The Pick: Pacers ML (+115) Picks given are the opinion of the writer, not Elitepickz pros. To get picks from some of the sharpest minds in the industry, sign up here and use code AB15 for 15% off any pass!
