Round 14 of the exciting NBL24 season begins on Thursday night with an epic showdown between the Sydney Kings and Melbourne United. These two heavyweights always put on a show and this edition certainly won’t disappoint. We provide our full game preview and free best bet for the Round 14 opener below!
Also, we’re providing previews and expert betting tips for every game of the NBL24 season, so make sure to head over to our NBL Tips page regularly to keep up to date with all of our content.
NBL24 Round 14 Preview & Betting Tips
Sydney Kings vs Melbourne United
Thursday 7:30pm AEDT, January 4th, Qudos Bank Arena
Despite heading into Round 13 in their worst form of the season, the Sydney Kings were able to produce one of their best performances. They were far too strong for the Taipans when defeating them by 19 points (101-82), outscoring them in all four quarters.
Still, the Kings will need to show they can consistently play at a high level if they’re to be taken seriously as contenders this season. They’ve failed to string together back-to-back wins since Round 7, losing five times from eight games in that span.
In injury news, star forward DJ Hogg is expected to miss on Thursday night due to a shoulder injury, which is a huge blow to the defending champs. Hogg missed games in the early part of the season for the same injury which seems to have flared up again.
Also playing the Taipans in their most recent outing were Melbourne United. Unlike their upcoming opponents, United failed to match the intensity of the Snakes and ended up falling to them for the second time this season in a 17-point road loss (78-95).
Regardless of their recent loss, United are clearly the benchmark as we head towards the business end of the season. They’re the only team in the competition that is yet to lose twice in a row this campaign, and they currently sit pretty on top of the standings and three games clear of second.
United have some injury concerns of their own with forward Luke Travers questionable to play. He hurt his ankle in their most recent game but a recent X-ray showed there was no serious damage.
Match prediction: These two great rivals have only met on one occasion so far this season, which was back on November 19th. It was a see-sawing high-scoring affair, and one where the Kings coughed up a 15-point half time lead to eventually go down to United by 12 points.
There was 198 points scored the last time these sides met and such a high total is certainly no anomaly. The Kings are conceding 95.4 points per contest this season which is the highest of all 10 teams in the competition, while United have also been leaky of late having conceded 96, 103, and 95 across their past three.
The over has hit in 10 of United’s last 13 games, and I’m keen to bet with the trend on Thursday night and back in a high-scoring game.
Over 185.5 Points
$1.85 (1.5 Units)
