Projected Line: 192 Points
Boston's defense keeps struggling and on their last game in Cleveland, they struggled once again in protecting the basket, with Tristan Thompson shooting 6-9 FG at the rim, Tyler Zeller 1-2 FG and Luke Walton 2-2 FG! We are talking three players from Cleveland's frontcourt that combined 9-13 FG at the rim. Not even one of the best backcourt duos in the league could stop Kyrie Irving either, who played an amazing game.
It seems that Pablo Prigioni is banged up with a toe injury and this leaves the Knicks with Jason Kidd being their only healthy PG for tonight. This will be good news for Boston, who will not only pressuring him on defense in order to forced turnovers, as Rajon Rondo will come super aggressive to take advantage of the slow footed Kidd. Rondo didn't play the first game of the season between these two teams, so we can expect Rondo to be very aggressive tonight, while pushing up the pace to take advantage of this edge. Paul Pierce has been struggling this season, but he actually had one of his best games of the season at New York with 10-18 FG and 23 points. We know that Boston shoots a ton of long range shots, as they are #4 in shooting volume from 16-23 feet and the Knicks are struggling on defense on this area due to their rotations changes in their backcourt. They are now #21 on 16-23 feet defense with 38.7% FG allowed for the season, but they allowed 47% FG over their last 10 games! With Rajon Rondo having a great matchup and the Celtics's long range shooting working well, I expect Boston to have a good offensive game tonight.
Regarding the Knicks's offense, Carmelo Anthony shot 6-26 FG on the first game against Boston, so I fully expect him to come fired up today. Boston's individual defense isn't an elite unit anymore and it's only necessary to see what Kyrie Irving did against them on their last game. Therefore, I really expect Carmelo to have a big game today. Boston may eventually use some zone defense, but this will also be dangerous against the Knicks's good perimeter shooting. Amare Stoudemire is already playing at a nice rhythm and his presence on the court tonight will be a key factor for the Knicks's offense, as he will be facing an inexperienced Jared Sullinger.
I expect both teams to come very aggressive tonight, while taking advantage of the favorable matchups they'll have on this game. Aggressiveness generally results in a lot of free throws and this is especially true with Joe Crawford on the court. Therefore, I see this game as being a high scoring one, so I'll be taking the Over in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 503/504 Over 188 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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