Oklahoma City Thunder -7.5 (-105) @ New York Knicks
Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, New York
January 26, 2016, 4:30PM PST
In head-to-head play, the Knicks have covered facing the Thunder in both of the last two contests and in 6 of the last ten. Further, New York is 4-1 in recent years against OKC at Madison Square Garden, and 6-4 since 2010 when the Thunder are favored to win.
These stats, on the one hand, argue rather persuasively in favor of a Knicks cover this evening as home dogs. Counterintuitively though, we are siding with Oklahoma City. Our three primary simulation routines each call for the visiting team to win by eight or nine -- a sufficient margin for Thunder backers to collect the payday.
The Thunder allowed the Mavericks to post 31 points in the fourth quarter Sunday to make that game competitive. We anticipate greater focus throughout tonight's action from the Durant-Westbrook tandem.
Specifically, Russell Westbrook, the league's 7th most prolific scorer this season, managed about 8 points less than his season average last out, and though the lightening fast Point Guard averages more free throws per game than all but eight other players in the NBA, he did not make it to the charity stripe once in Sunday's contest. As great players tend to self correct, we expect Westbrook to come out of the gate tonight with renewed aggression.
Bottom line: After the sub-par showing two days ago, look for Westbrook to fill up the stat log tonight and to fuel the Thunder to a road cover.
(Rotoworld currently lists Carmelo Anthony as questionable for this afternoon's action, but we anticipate that the star Forward will play. If Melo can not go, expect the spread to balloon to double digits.)
Happy betting!!