Posted on: December 2, 2022, 11:46h.
Last updated on: December 2, 2022, 11:48h.
Through the first 20 games of the season, the high-scoring Sacramento Kings are the best betting team in the NBA with a 13-7 record against the spread.
The Kings are 11-9 overall, but among the top ATS teams in the league along with the Boston Celtics at 14-8, and Milwaukee Bucs at 12-7-1.
The Celtics (18-4) and Bucks (15-5) are the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, but also have the best overall records in the NBA through the first quarter of the season.
| TEAM | ATS RECORD |
| Sacramento Kings | 13-7 |
| Boston Celtics | 14-8 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | 12-7-1 |
| Indiana Pacers | 13-8 |
| Phoenix Suns | 13-8 |
| Cleveland Cavs | 12-8-2 |
The Celtics are now +330 odds to win the 2022-23 NBA championship, according to DraftKings. The Bucks are second on the futures board at +600 odds to win a second title in the last three seasons.
Meanwhile, the Kings have the sixth-best record in the Western Conference, and occupy third place in the Pacific Division ahead of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers. They’re still a long shot at +15000 odds to win the championship. The Kings might not have enough experience to win a title, but they exceeded expectations by oddsmakers and gamblers alike in the first quarter of the season.
Cow Town Turnaround by Mike Brown
Mike Brown won an NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors last season as their top assistant coach under Steve Kerr. The Kings hired Brown as their new head coach hoping that the championship glory will rub off on the young Kings.
Brown had a difficult task ahead of him by trying to end the longest playoff drought in the NBA spanning 16 losing seasons. The Kings last qualified for the postseason in the 2006 NBA Playoffs, but have no won a playoff series since the 2004 NBA Playoffs.
Since Rick Adelman stepped down as head coach after the 2005-06 NBA season, the Kings churned through 11 head coaches. Dave Joerger had the longest tenure in the last 16 years, which spanned three seasons in the late 2010s.
Sacramento, the state capital of California, has been nicknamed Cow Town due to the location of the sleepy city in the middle of a massive agricultural region. The losing culture and lack of nightlife in Cow Town deterred free agents from signing long-term contracts with the Kings over the last decade.
The Kings had to build up their current team through trades and the NBA Draft. Once they added Brown as their head coach, things finally started to look up in Cow Town. The Kings are on pace to win 44 games and finish above .500 for the first time since the end of the 2005-06 season.
Kings Making Bettors Happy
The Kings tumbled out of the gate and lost their first four games. After they began 3-6, the Kings unleashed a seven-game winning streak in November. They followed up their surprise winning streak with a three-game skid, but finally got off the schneid with a victory against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. The Kings enter December with a winning record.
Point guard De’Aaron Fox leads the Kings with 24 points, 6.1 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game. He’s also shooting 39.4% from 3-point range.
Power forward Domantas Sabonis is second in scoring averaging 16.7 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per game.
Newly acquired guards — Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk — are important parts of the Kings’ high-octane offense. Huerter, aka “Red Velvet”, is the third-best scorer on the Kings averaging 15.9 points per game. Huerter leads the team in 3-point shooting with 3.2 made treys per game and an impressive 45.1% success rate.
Monk averages 14.6 points per game, and he’s the third-best assist man with 4.4 dishes per game. Monk surprised a lot of people when he left the Lakers and migrated north to Sacramento.
Rookie forward Keegan Murray averages 10.6 points per game. The Kings selected Murray with the fourth overall pick out of Iowa. Brown handed the rookie a lot of responsibility when he promoted him to the starting five. Murray has now started 16 games this season.
The Kings are the second-highest scoring team in the NBA averaging 199.9 points per game. Only the Celtics (121.9) score more points per game.
According to Kevin Hollinger’s advanced metrics, the Kings have an offensive efficiency rating of 113.6 for fourth-best in the NBA.
Worst ATS Teams: Mavs, Heat
If you’re looking to fade teams, then consider the Dallas Mavs and Miami Heat. Those two squads have the worst ATS record in the NBA this season. The Mavs lead the league with a 5-15-1 ATS record, followed by the Heat at 7-14-1.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are third-worst at 8-14, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers at 8-12, and the Memphis Grizzlies at 8-12-1.
The Mavs are 10-11 overall this season and find themselves on the playoff bubble in the Western Conference as the #11 team. That’s surprising considering the Mavs advanced to the Western Conference Finals last season and they wouldn’t even qualify for the Play-In Tournament if the season were to end today.
The Mavs are struggling to adjust without point guard Jalen Brunson after he signed with the New York Knicks in free agency. The Mavs currently have a losing record and covered the spread only five times in 21 games during the first quarter of the season.
The Heat are 10-12 overall and find themselves in an identical spot as the Mavs, but in the Eastern Conference. With a 10-12 record, the Heat are on the playoff bubble with the #11 spot in the east. The Heat beat the spread only seven times in 22 games this season.