The New York Knicks are coming off of two straight, much-needed wins against the Clippers and Kings after suffering a seven-game losing skid.
New York enters Wednesday night’s matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, who are red hot and coming off five-straight wins. The Mavericks are 11-2 since they traded Kristaps Porzingis and that’s yet another reason why the Knicks won the Porzingis trade. I’ll die on that hill.
With 17 games left on the calendar, the Knicks have some tough sledding ahead of them if they still have playoff aspirations and want to come close to sniffing the play-in tournament. At this point, I wish that they’d just play the young guys more and focus on next season but Thibodeau is gonna Thibs (Kanye shrug).
On the other hand, the Mavericks are the fifth-best team in the West and are neck-and-neck with the Jazz for the fourth seed. I’m certain that they’d like to be the home team in the first round of the playoffs so wins mean a lot to them right now.
Spread:
Knicks: +8.5 (-110)
Mavericks: -8.5 (-110)
Moneyline:
Knicks: +300
Mavericks: -380
Total:
216 (Over -110/Under -110)
If you ask me, these lines couldn’t be more confusing. On one hand, Dallas is at home and is the better team, so why shouldn’t Luka Doncic’s squad be favored by so much?
On the other hand, the Knicks beat the Mavericks earlier this season when they were without Porzingis (I know, I was there). Even though New York was on the losing side of seven straight, the Knicks have been able to keep games close (up until they ultimately implode as per usual).
But with Dallas, things are different. Julius Randle always has decent games against his hometown team. New York’s also 4-0 against the spread in the last four contests when playing in Dallas and 4-1 against the spread overall in the previous five meetings.
But I feel like we’ve been here before. Prior to the All-Star break, the Knicks were up against some huge spreads when playing against a few West Coast opponents like Utah, Memphis, and Denver (all of which covered its handicaps). Because of that, tonight presents a tough situation.
As far as the over/under, in their last 12 contests, the under has hit 10 times. The Mavericks are sporting one of the better defenses this season. Meanwhile the Knicks, while they’ve played at a faster pace as of late, have overall operated at a bottom-five pace this year.
If New York can put up points in a hurry and force Dallas out of its comfort zone, the Knicks will have a chance in this one. If not, and both teams play super slow, the better squad will prevail. As of today, that’s the Mavericks.
New York’s also dealing with a bunch of notable injuries while Dallas is relatively healthy, so that has to be taken into consideration here as well.
This is the lowest over/under I’ve seen for a Knicks game in a while so I know the oddsmakers are begging the public to take the over in this one.
The safe bet is to go with the under and while I don’t see the Knicks winning this game, it’s hard to score less than 216 total points and lay 8.5 points.
Final verdict: Knicks +8.5 and under 216