The Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings headline Sunday’s NBA action.
The pregame narrative: These are two teams with opposite aspirations at this point in the season. The Rockets can build on yesterday’s victory over the Denver Nuggets with another win over the Kings, who sit in the basement of the Western Conference standings.
Check out my Rockets vs. Kings SGP predictions for Dec. 21, featuring Reed Sheppard and Alperen Sengun.
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Rockets vs. Kings predictions
Parlay: Rockets ML | Sheppard over 2.5 threes | Sengun over 9.5 rebounds (+300)
Rockets ML (-625): I’ll keep this portion short and sweet … the Kings are a bad basketball team.
They sit 15th in the west and are 1-9 in their last 10 games. Both Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine will be out for this contest as both All-Stars continue to recover from injuries.
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That leaves a thin roster to work with, and it’s been apparent in the results. Sacramento is on a five-game losing streak, averaging 107.8 points per game.
Over the full season, that would be the worst offence in the NBA.
Even though the Rockets are on a back-to-back, they are far superior to the Kings, so it shouldn’t matter.
After losing the first two games of the season, Houston has won 17 of 23 games, catapulting the squad firmly into a playoff position.
Earlier this month, they dismantled the Kings with LaVine, 121-95.
NBA SGP legs
Sheppard over 2.5 threes (+104): The second-year pro is starting to find his groove at the NBA level. He is averaging 13.4 points while canning 44.2% of his 3s.
The guard attempts 6.2 shots from beyond the arc a night, so that efficiency is extremely impressive.
And he’s coming off a great outing against the Denver Nuggets. He hit six of nine triples, finishing with 27 points.
Sheppard played over 30 minutes in that contest and should be asked to do a lot of heavy lifting again tonight, being one of the youngest players on the roster.
If that’s the case, he should at the very least take a handful of 3s, which is plenty enough for him to clear this mark.
The Kings allow the fourth most points per game to shooting guards (23.48).
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Sengun over 9.5 rebounds (-117): Another position the Kings struggle to contain is centre.
Big men average 16.76 rebounds per game against Sacramento, which is the most in the NBA.
The Kings are missing Sabonis inside. They don’t have a suitable replacement for the three-time rebounding champ.
Sengun is averaging right around this number of rebounds (9.3), but he should be in for above-average performance on the glass tonight.
He had double-digit rebounds in four of the past five games, including 10 boards against the Kings on Dec. 3.
Sengun played under 30 minutes in that game because the Rockets won by close to 30. That proves he can cash this wager even if with a lopsided score.
Rockets vs. Kings predictions made at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2025.
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Spencer is a true sports junkie. A graduate of the Sports Journalism program at Centennial College, he first joined NorthStar Gaming as an intern in 2023. He is now a contributing writer. He loves finding the edge to bet on in all sports but has a deep passion for the NBA and UFC. Previous stops include Sportsnet.