NBA Betting: New York Knicks at Detroit Pistons
The New York Knicks entered the 2013-2014 NBA season with very high expectations. So far they’ve fallen far short of them going 3-6 SU/ATS losing 6 of their last 8 games. They’re currently out of the playoff qualification zone tied with the team they’ll face tonight, the Detroit Pistons. Of course the Pistons’ have different expectations and aren’t as upset with a 3-6 SU record. Detroit has gone 4-5 against the spread.
Hard to tell what’s going on in Detroit. Josh Smith is the Pistons big weapon right now after signing a big money contract in the off season but he’s not been overly effective this year. He’s done a bad job with shot selection and hasn’t taken care of the ball well–typical traits of a player with a brand new big money contract. The Pistons haven’t done a good job playing team defense either. We generally like new head coach Maurice Cheeks but it could be a case where he’s a good coach that simply doesn’t have the personnel.
The New York Knicks have a lot of talent but haven’t done a good job playing as a team. They’ll be without defensive stopper Tyson Chandler for awhile and Metta World Peace has been downgraded to ‘doubtful’ for this game. Point guard Raymond Felton could return–he’s listed as ‘questionable’ for tonight’s contest. In our view the Pistons will dominate the boards thanks to a couple of solid players who are far from being ‘household names’–Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe. The Knicks are a very poor rebounding team with Amare Stoudemire a non-factor on the inside. Chandler’s absence is crucial as he’s one of the few Knicks that can be counted on to clean the glass. New York ranks #29 in team rebounding and minus Chandler’s 9 boards per game they’re functionally the worst rebounding team in the league. Carmelo Anthony can’t outscore opponents every night and with the team quickly losing their swagger we’d much rather back a plucky Pistons’ side that looks to be slowly heading in the right direction. The Knicks are 3-0 ATS on the road this year and have covered 7 straight against the Pistons but that just gets us a little bit of line value.
BET DETROIT PISTONS -3′ OVER NEW YORK KNICKS
