Can You Trust the Knicks as Road Favorites?

The New York Knicks are currently on a two-game losing streak so is it worth betting on them as road favorites tonight in Detroit? We’ll be diving into why this is a good spot for them to get back into the win column and cover as well. Afterward, we’ll further preview the game a bit more.

Add the Knicks to Your Bet Slip

The New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons have both struggled in their last ten games but the Knicks are favored by -5 points tonight on the road and I think this is the best play to make for the game.

Before we get into actual on-court stats and reasons, it’s worth noting that both Jaden Ivey and Bojan Bogdanovic are questionable tonight and if they cannot play that is two more scoring threats out of the lineup alongside Cade Cunningham who has been sidelined for a while. Detroit was already struggling offensively so without these three the Knicks have a big advantage.

Now as for actual on-court information both these teams have been at the bottom of the league defensively all season, the only difference is the Pistons are also at the bottom of the league offensively while the Knicks have an offensive rating of 111.9. Despite losing two straight the Knicks have scored 120+ points in both games and Jalen Brunson scored 30 or more in both of them.

Brunson has a good match-up he can expose tonight as well with Killian Hayes who has a defensive rating of 118.3 which is one of the lowest on the Pistons, which based on their team defense numbers is not where you’d want to be. New York as a whole should be able to win this game marginally just with the offense.

There is no questioning that the Knicks' defense has been bad this season and lately but the offenses they’ve faced lately have had the ability to keep pace scoring-wise with them, the Pistons do not. Detroit is 25th in the league in offensive rating as it is and like I mentioned before could be without their leading scorer tonight in Bogdanovic.

Game Preview

A big reason for the Knicks' struggles has been their inability to shoot the three ball, New York enters tonight shooting 31.6% from three which is 30th in the league. Guys like RJ Barrett have been scoring more efficiently recently but can’t find any consistency from deep.

Detroit has actually done a good job limiting opponents’ three-point scoring so tonight probably won’t be the night they try to break out of the shooting struggles and instead just stick with scoring in the paint. In fact, the Knicks are first in the NBA in average points in the paint a game with 56.5.

If Ivey and Bogdanovic can’t go tonight look for Rodney McGruder to be in the starting rotation. Detroit will likely lean on Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart to be the focal points of the scoring and offense in their absence as well. Stewart is expected to return tonight after missing their last seven games with an injury.