Houston can't do much else but prepare for the playoffs when they travel to Sacramento to take on the Kings this Sunday afternoon at the Golden 1 Center. The Rockets are locked for the third seed as they're 7.5 games back of second-place San Antonio and 4.5 games ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers. Their first-round opponent will be either Oklahoma City or Memphis. Sacramento currently sits at a tie for third-to-last in the West, sitting right beside Minnesota with the same record entering Sunday. Tipoff is set for 6:00 PM Eastern time and the game will be seen on NBATV, Root Sports Southwest, and NBC Sports California will have the game in local markets.
Rockets (53-26 overall, 42-37 ATS, 24-15 away, 2nd Southwest)
Houston has hit a bit of a cold patch losing four of their last six games. They lost to Detroit 114-109 in their previous contest. The Pistons shot a ridiculous 108 field goal attempts in the matchup. Shooting guard James Harden (29.2 ppg, 11.2 apg) led the team with 33 points and a positive passing ratio of 12 assists to just 1 turnover. That efficiency wasn't enough because the rest of the team struggled on offense. The next-highest scorer was shooting guard Lou Williams (17.7 ppg) who came off the bench with 15 points.
The other four starters alongside Harden finished with nine points or less. Point guard Patrick Beverley (9.5 ppg, 4.2 apg) finished with just six points on 1-of-3 shooting, but did lead the team with 13 boards.
Kings (31-48 overall, 39-37-3 ATS, 16-23 home, 3rd Pacific)
Sacramento has also struggled, losing three of their last five games. They most recently fell to the Los Angeles Lakers by a 98-94 margin. While the team shot a better 50.7 percent from the field, their opponent got to the free throw line more often to pull out the win.
Power forward Skal Labissiere (8.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg) led the team with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Shooting guard Buddy Hield (10.2 ppg) recorded 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting and hit 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
Point guard Darren Collison (13.2 ppg, 4.6 apg) came off of a rest day with 15 points and a positive passing ratio of 10 assists to 4 turnovers.
Backup center Georgios Papagiannis (5.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg) picked up a double-double that featured 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Houston is favored by nine points on the road and the total O/U is set at 225.5 points. The Rockets are 0-6 against the spread in their last six games overall.
