NBA WEN INFO

As we mentioned, there’s a battle royale going on for the
6-10 playoff seeds in the West between the Clippers, Warriors,
Timberwolves, Kings, and Mavericks, with only two games
separating the fi ve squads. Sacramento gets a crack at Dallas on
Monday night and shows up in the mile-high city tonight eager
to play their double-revenge card. That’s because the Kings own
a super 8-1 ATS in this series when seeking same-season double
revenge, including 6-0 ATS away. The Sac Pac is also playing well,
winning six of their last eight before playing Dallas, including
two straight road wins. But that’s not enough for Kings head
coach Doug Christie, who said he’ll be so disappointed if they
lose against Dallas and Denver that he would demand his players
take the court for Friday’s home game against San Antonio
while wearing those plastic masks featured on most Burger
King commercials. Denver looked like a runaway train a month
ago when they fi red up a nine-game win skein, but the Lakers
brought that to a screeching halt in a 23-point blowout win over
the Nuggets, and they’ve gone just 2-2 since. The golden boys
also enter off a 110-104 loss to Boston, where the Nuggets were
out to make amends for a loss to the Celtics in early January. With
Denver just 4-7 ATS as a favorite after facing Boston, this game
has the smell of u-p-s-e-t written all over it.

The Grizzlies have been breathing down No. 1 OKC’s neck
for most of the season, but three losses in their last four
contests have seen Memphis slip to fourth place behind the
Lakers and Nuggets. The Grizz hosts East playoff contender
Atlanta on Monday before tangling with the Thunder. Still,
regardless of the outcome, Memphis will be more than
anxious to avenge a 125-112 loss here against the Thunder
a month ago, one of two setbacks to OKC this season. On

their side tonight is a 14-4 ATS record overall with same-
season double revenge, including 11-2 ATS at home. And

speaking of home cooking, Memphis stands 6-1 SUATS as a
host in this series when the Grizz sports at least a .642 win
percentage. Oklahoma City rode a three-game win streak
into Monday’s clash with Houston, but they’re not quite as
thunderous immediately after facing the Rockets, going 0-5

SU and 1-3-1 ATS in this role. In addition, OKC has a same-
season revenger on tap against the Spurs, and they could

get caught looking past the Grizzlies here. For the fi nal dust
on the bottle, we turn to THE CLINCHER: The Thunder
is 23-40 ATS away against foes seeking same-season
double revenge-exact from a most recent loss of 12
or more points, including 0-10 ATS versus .770 or
greater foes.

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@RLeith35