Tonight’s matchup between the New York Knicks and the Suns is a tale of two vastly different teams.
Phoenix currently has a 7.5-game lead on Golden State for first place in the West while New York has all but knocked itself out of the play-in tournament. One thing I can say is that even though the Knicks are in the midst of a six-game losing streak, they’ve still been playing their hearts out.
With the recent emergence of RJ Barrett as the team’s #1 scoring option on offense, I’ll be the first one to say that they’ve been a lot more fun to watch and look better as a whole.
Even the supporting cast has played a lot better of late which is promising to see as we head toward the 2022-23 season.
Evan Fournier has been playing great basketball for nearly 2 months straight and even Julius Randle seems to have embraced his role as second-fiddle to Barrett. Sure, he hasn’t been putting up 25-30 per game with Barrett on the floor but he’s more than made up for that with his rebounding and playmaking.
The Knicks will once again be without either of their two true point guards in Kemba Walker and Derrick Rose, as well as Quentin Grimes. Nerlens Noel is technically healthy but has been kept out of the past few games and will only be called upon in case of emergency.
Here are your best bets for Friday night’s New York Knicks game.
The Suns will be without their two best players in Chris Paul (thumb) and Devin Booker (health and safety protocols). The Knicks must capitalize on this if they even remotely believe they can sniff the 10th seed and make the play-in tournament.
Spread:
New York +6.5 (-110)
Phoenix -6.5 (-110)
Moneyline:
New York: +220
Phoenix: -270
Total:
222.5 (Over -110/Under -110)
As a disciplined and educated bettor, these lines couldn’t make more sense to me. But as a New York fan, I couldn’t be any more confused. Are the Knicks really THAT bad?
Phoenix will be without its two best players while New York still has a healthy Barrett, Fournier, and Randle. The Knicks are bringing the three of them into this dog fight while the opposition is putting Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and Jae Crowder up against them.
And yet, the Suns are favored by 6.5 points?! That doesn’t make any sense to me.
So, unfortunately, when something doesn’t make sense in the world of sports betting, you’re better off fading the more obvious decision if you like making money. While all the casuals sink their pennies into the Knicks moneyline and Knicks +6.5, we’re going to take the harder bet to stomach and go with the Suns -6.5.
New York has let us down more often than not in games that seemed like no-brainers. I’m done falling for the Knicks’ shenanigans.
To support my claims with some numbers: New York is 26th in net rating over its last 15 games, 1-10 against the spread in its last 11, 10-20 as an underdog this season, and 12-17-1 on the road. I don’t care if the Knicks were getting +10 in this game, I’d still probably fade them.
As far as the over/under, New York has upped its pace pretty heavily from the beginning of the season, and therefore the team is scoring a bit more per game than they were earlier on in the year. Phoenix being without Paul and Booker does scare me a bit though so this one is a toss-up.
It’s hard to take the over in this one, even with the Suns operating at the 9th highest pace this season.
Final Verdict: The safe bet is Suns -6.5 and I’ll personally be leaning the under but I won’t set my bets until closer to the 10 p.m. ET tip.