Boston Celtics -10.5 @ New York Knicks
The Knicks will entertain the Boston Celtics tonight at Madison Square Garden, after losing their last five games both absolutely and versus the number. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual spot for New York, as they have encountered four streaks this season that eclipse the current tally of consecutive losses (the Knicks have recorded runs of 7, 8 10 and 16 defeats without an intervening win at various points this year). Further, New York is only 10-15 when playing as a double-digit dog.
The Knicks plight stands in rather stark contrast to that of the Celtics, who enter tonight's matchup after beating New York's around-the-way rivals (the Brooklyn Nets) from a position of 5-point underdogs. Boston is 6-4 in their last 10 straight up, and 7-3 ATS.
As added motivation for a strong showing from the Celtics tonight, Boston is clinging to a one game lead (in the loss column) over the Pacers for the final seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Isaiah Thomas is listed a probable for tonight's action. Regaining thier starting Point Guard, on average, probably adds somewhere around 5 points to Boston's advantage over New York, by our account, given that Celtic replacement players, Phil Pressey and James Young, both sport RPMs in the range of -3.
Thus, while our Real Plus/Minus-based framework makes Boston 12 point favorites tonight, we would not be surprised to see an even wider margin, given that the numbers likely do not anticipate that Thomas is available for action.
Happy betting!!