NBA Betting Preview: New York Knicks at Orlando Magic

Added on Mar 01, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

After a sparse sports betting card on Monday we’ve got more to work with on Tuesday–in this post we’ll take a look at a NBA Eastern Conference matchup between the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic. Magic have been trying to keep pace with Miami in the Southeast Division for much of this season while the ‘new look’ Knicks have all of a sudden become a public darling with the acquisition of Carmelo Anthony.

New York Knicks at Orlando Magic
March 1, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

Bad tactical matchup for the Knicks who have no one in the middle to contend with Dwight Howard. Knicks surprised Miami on Sunday and that huge win makes this an even more difficult spot for them here–beating the Heat was front page news nationwide so they’re now in a natural ‘letdown’ spot against a brutally tough opponent that will be giving them their full attention after they defeated Orlando’s in-state rival.

Sure can’t fault anything the Knicks have done against the spread on the road this season–New York is 20-8 ATS away from Madison Square Garden and 20-7 ATS as an underdog. Even before the ‘revival’ of the Knicks this season with the arrival of Amare Stoudemire via free agency this has been a good pointspread category for them–they’re 14-5 ATS as road dogs of +9′ to +12 points since 2008. Of course any time you see such lopsided ATS ledgers–good or bad–don’t be surprised to see them experience a good deal of correction going forward. Part of this is natural ‘regression to the mean’, but much of it is due to linesmakers shading prices against the team in question.

Knicks lost by 9 on this floor to the Magic in late December when Dwight Howard had a monster game, scoring 24 points and grabbing 18 rebounds. New York still isn’t a good defensive team and are very weak in the middle. Orlando has dominated poor defensive teams this season–against opponents allowing 99+ points per game the Magic are 17-9 ATS overall and on a 7-1 SU/6-2 ATS run. Magic playing well at the moment going 7-3 SU/ATS in their L10 games and the recent addition of Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks lineup gives us some more wagering value–Orlando was a -7′ favorite in the last meeting and Anthony doesn’t change the matchup difficulty for New York in this game.

Bet Orlando Magic -7 over New York Knicks