NBA Preview: Sacramento Kings at Charlotte Bobcats

Added on Feb 25, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Interesting card of NBA action for Friday as teams adjust to life after the league’s trade deadline. The Charlotte Bobcats moved leading rebounder Gerald Wallace to Portland–significant because he was the final member of the original roster for the expansion team. They’ll play a non-conference game tonight against the Sacramento Kings who may be the ‘Anaheim Kings’ as soon as next season.

Sacramento Kings at Charlotte Bobcats
February 25, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

The Bobcats are undervalued somewhat here, likely a reaction to the transaction that sent Gerald Wallace to Portland. Sure, he was their leading rebounder but they’re actually in decent shape in the frontcourt–they’ll likely try Gerald Henderson at small forward and he’s a talent that the team is very excited about. Sacramento has become a better team in the past month or so–at least against the spread–but they’ll be playing without leading scorer/sparkplug Tyreke Evans who continues to suffer from plantar fasciitis.

Sacramento has lost 8 of their L10 games, is battling Minnesota for the worst record in the Western Conference and will be without their leading scorer against a Bobcats team with a winning record (15-14) at home. So why is Charlotte just -5 point favorites? Our guess is an overreaction to the Wallace trade and trepidation over the focus of Stephen Jackson. Jackson left Charlotte’s last game with a hamstring injury but is listed as ‘probable’ here. A bigger concern is his attitude after the team failed to move him before the trade deadline and with it now apparent that owner Michael Jordan is clearing up cap space the general vibe around the team going forward. Of course there’s a flip side to that–the Bobcats have a lot of talented young players who’ll be getting an opportunity to showcase their skills and play their way into a better NBA gig either here in Charlotte or elsewhere.

Sacramento has been reasonably competitive despite their 2-8 record in the last 10 games–they’ve covered 5 of those games–but ultimately the value is on the home team here. Charlotte has won and covered three straight against Sacramento and last season when the Kings played here the Bobcats were a -7 home chalk. Not sure they’ve regressed as much as this price suggests while Sacramento definitely has. This should be a double digit win for the Bobcats.

Bet Charlotte Bobcats -5 over Sacramento Kings