NBA: KNICKS SURPRISE CAVS BACKERS
The New York Knicks have had a surprising amount of success against the Cleveland Cavaliers in recent years.
While Knicks fans covered their faces in shame due to the franchises lack of success, backers have jumped on the success that New York has had against one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams and are riding an 8-3 record against the spread (ATS) in their last 11 against Cleveland.
New York was an underdog in every one of those games, dating back to late in the 2004-2005 season and they’ll be in the same role on Tuesday but that shouldn’t deter backers. With the exception of a blowout win by Cleveland early in 2007, the Knicks have played the Cavs tough and won five of the last 10 straight up.
Bettors can get the latest odds for this game on our Live Odds page. Make sure you check out the Betting Trends and stats pages as well. Then place your bets and follow the action on the NBA Network, with tip-off set for 7:30 pm ET.
Backers can only gain confidence in the fact that New York is 5-2 at home this season and at 7-6 overall, they have a winning record for the first time in years. They are also 4-3 ATS at Madison Square Garden, having covered three of their last four on their home court.
Offensively, the Knicks rank near the top of the NBA, as their 105.2 points per game is second in the NBA. Led by Nate Robinson’s 15.3 points and Wilson Chandler’s 15.2 points a game, the Knicks offense is clicking on all cylinders with five players averaging at least 10 points a game.
Even more impressive is that they have five players in double digit scoring after shipping its two leading scorers off via trades last week. Gone are Zach Randolph’s 20.5 points and Jamal Crawford’s 19.6.
Where New York runs into problems is on defense as every point they score has, more often than not, been matched by opponents. New York is the worst team in the league defensively, giving up 106.6 points a game while opponents are hitting almost 50% of shots taken against them.
That is pretty much par for the course for a Mike D’Antoni team and fans shouldn’t expect much improvement on the defensive side of the ball.
Instead, bettors should take a close look at the totals for all Knicks games as they’ve been hitting over some pretty large numbers of late. New York has gone Over the number in five of their last six, eclipsing totals of 203, 204.5, 208.5 and 214.5 along the way. They even hit over in one of the two games since dealing Crawford and Randolph.
Add the fact that the Cavaliers, led by LeBron James’ 29.1 points per game, have hit Over in seven of their last 10 games, and the Over has been money in the last four matchups between these teams and Sportsbook.com oddsmakers will likely set a lofty number for these clubs on Tuesday.
Cleveland’s offense is currently ranked fourth in the league with an average of 101.2 points a game.
