Posted on 2/13/2008 7:23:13 PM

Bet on NBA - Sacramento Kings vs. Houston Rockets

By Mike Rose

The Rockets seven-game winning streak will be put to the test this evening when the Sacramento Kings invade Houston in both clubs last game before the All Star break. The Kings sport a 23-27 SU mark this season, but they’ve only managed to secure victories in 7 of their 24 road games. It’s clearly obvious they’re a much better club when playing in the comfy confines of Arco Arena, so there’s a reason they’ve been installed lofty road underdogs in this spot. Houston comes into this contest white hot winners of 7 in a row and in 9 of their L/10. They currently sit 4.5 games in back of the New Orleans Hornets in the jam packed Southwest Division of the Western Conference. They’ve won their L/3 home games to improve their mark in the Toyota Center to 15-9 SU, and they now sit 1-game above .500 ATS at 12-11-1.

This contest will be the Kings third in a row on the road. They lost their previous two against Golden State (105-102) and Memphis (107-94). The loss against the Grizzlies was Memphis’ first since they traded Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers. They were only able to muster 15-points in the 4th quarter against what’s been a horrid Memphis defense all season long, so that doesn’t bode well for them against a much tougher Houston defense tonight.

Yao Ming has been playing out of his mind of late, and the teams’ success can be directly correlated because of it. The Houston Rockets are riding their longest winning streak in three years, but that's what it's taken to get them into playoff contention in the highly competitive Western Conference. Even after ripping off this solid winning streak before the break, the Rockets only find themselves tied with the Golden State Warriors for the 8th and final spot in the WC.

Sacramento beat the Rockets earlier this season to end a three-game losing streak to T-Mac and company, but the Rockets have won 6 of the L/10 overall. The road team has cashed their backers tickets in 11 of the L/15 meetings between these teams, and Sacramento has experienced ATS success in Houston cashing tickets in 5 of their L/7 visits. It’s also been a surprisingly high scoring series that’s seen the Over cash in 4 straight, and go 6-2-1 ATS the L/9 meetings in Houston.

The Kings are another team nipping at their heels, so the Rockets would love nothing more than to put some more distance between them. However, to make their backers happy, they’ll have to win this game by more than 9.5-points since the betting public hammered the Rockets at the (-8) opener. The ‘Total’ for this match-up opened at 197.5, but has been bet up and currently sits in the 199-200 range. You can get positions in on both the side and ‘Total’ for this game at BetUS.com right now.

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