NBA Betting – Chicago Bulls at Sacramento Kings

Chicago Bulls at Sacramento Kings (-1.5, 195 o/u)

Tonight, the surprising Sacramento Kings (6-4) will battle the Central Division-leading Chicago Bulls (8-3) at Sleep Train Arena (10:30 p.m. Eastern).

On Tuesday, the Kings signed small forward Rudy Gay to three-year, $40 million contract extension. However, the financially-secure Gay is questionable for tonight’s game with an Achilles issue.  With Gay’s offense (21.8 PPG) out of the lineup, the Kings will look to second-year guard Ben McLemore to up his offensive production (9.1 PPG). Omri Casspi will likely take Gay’s spot in the starting lineup, but the Kings shouldn’t expect too much out of the five-year vet; Casspi has only averaged double-figures once in his career, and that was back in his rookie season. This year, the Israeli is posting 6.5 points per game in 15.8 minutes.

The good news for Sacramento is that DeMarcus Cousins (22.4 points per game and 11.1 rebounds per game) and Darren Collison (15.8 points per game and 6.0 assists per game) are both healthy. The dynamic duo has been crucial to the Kings’ early success, posting 3.6 and 3.7 value-over-replacement, respectively, on the year.

On the other side of the floor, the Bulls could be missing two key players tonight. Spanish forward Pau Gasol is out with a calf injury, while point guard Derrick Rose is questionable with a hamstring problem. The Bulls have learned how to play without the former NBA MVP though. Rose has already missed six games this season, and the Bulls are a solid 4-2 in those matchups.

Chicago has dominated the Kings recently, winning seven of the last ten. With star players injured on both teams, look for the well-adjusted Bulls to triumph over the Kings (who will be playing without Gay for the first time this year).

(Photo credit: Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA (Derrick Rose) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)