Tuesday NBA Odds Picks, Predictions: Our Staff’s Best Bets for Kings vs. Lakers (January 4)

The NBA slate has just five games on tap Tuesday night, but our Action Network NBA experts have two picks on the same side of the late night Kings vs. Lakers matchup. Check out their analysis and bets below. 

NBA Odds & Picks

Sacramento Kings vs. Los Angeles Lakers

Raheem Palmer: If you listened to the Buckets podcast, you’ll know that I jumped on the Sacramento Kings at +8, but I still think there’s some value on them at the current number.

The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t fared well as favorites this season as they’re just 8-18 (30.8%) ATS. Things haven’t been any better for them as home favorites where they’re 6-13 (31.6%) ATS. They also aren’t covering big numbers either as they’re 4-9 (30.8%) when they’re laying more than five points ATS. It’s tough to understand why the market continues to misplace this team, but at this point we have to continue to bet against them.

The Lakers are just 22nd in Defensive Rating, allowing opposing teams to score 114.5 points per 100 possessions in their non garbage time minutes, according to Cleaning the Glass, and their offense isn’t much better. The Lakers are just 15th in Offensive Rating (112.5) and Russell Westbrook’s turnovers continue to be an issue. He’s coming off a game in which he had nine turnovers, and it’s tough to imagine this team covering this big number. I’ll back the Kings at +7 and would bet this down to +5.5

Sacramento Kings vs. Los Angeles Lakers

Roberto Arguello: The Los Angeles Lakers have won three of their past four games, and they are listed as high as seven-point favorites against the Kings on FanDuel on Tuesday. Our Action Network NBA Model has the Kings as 4.2-point underdogs, meaning there is 5.3% value on the Sacramento spread.

The Kings have also won three of their last four games and are coming off of an impressive upset win over the Heat. The Kings got a big performance in that win on Sunday from De’Aaron Fox, who had struggled initially since returning to action after a COVID absence. Tyrese Haliburton has also been impressive over the last month, and with the two of them fully healthy, they should be in for a big night against a Lakers team that lacks rim protection with LeBron James seeing minutes at the five with Anthony Davis out.

The sharps are also backing the Kings as 99% of the money as of Tuesday afternoon is on the consensus number of Kings +6.5. Bet the Kings at +7 with value down to +5.5.

The must-have app for NBA bettors

The best NBA betting scoreboard

Free picks from proven pros

Live win probabilities for your bets

DOWNLOAD NOW