Today on the NBA, we will see the New York Knicks travel to take on the Philadelphia 76ers in an exciting contest. The game is scheduled for an 7:00 pm start time and it will be televised live on MSG (New York) and CSN (Philadelphia). Currently the odds for the game have the Sixers favored by 3 points, while the totals line is set at 184 points. Opening lines had the Sixers favored by 4,5 points, while the totals line was set at 185,5 points.
Game Analysis: I watched yesterday's game between these two teams and the game had a slow pace as I expected it to have. Philadelphia is indeed struggling on offense and in two games, they had just 18 and 14 assists. Without Andrew Bynum, Philadelphia has no interior presence and they will apparently start Kwame Brown at the center position tonight against the Knicks, in a clear sign that Coach Doug Collins will put the effort on defense to keep them competitive tonight. With Andre Iguodala leaving the team, this was supposed to be Evan Turner's breakthrough season, but he is lacking any confidence on his game right now, as he doesn't seem suited to the team's system and so, Philadelphia is currently a one man show in Jrue Holliday, but when that happens, the 76ers are in deep trouble. With the Knicks starting Carmelo Anthony at the PF position, their perimeter has a lot of speed on defense and Tyson Chandler also helps by making good rotations, so Philadelphia will once again struggle on offense tonight.
On the other hand, I expect Philadelphia to be better on defense tonight than they were yesterday. The Sixers looked consistently late on rotations and I understand that their gameplan against Denver was to pack the paint to stop the Nuggets from scoring down low, but the Knicks have a good outside shooting to counter these defensive moves from Philadelphia. The truth is that the Sixers gave a lot of space in the perimeter and I believe they will be better prepared to defend the Knicks tonight, as Doug Collins is a terrific coach in making adjustments and so, I expect another low scoring game for tonight between these two teams, with the Knicks defending well once again, while the Sixers will improve on yesterday's mistakes as the top defensive team they were. Therefore, I'll be taking the Under in here.
Free Pick: Take Under 184 in here (Single Dime Play)