NBA Odds – Golden State Warriors at New York Knicks

The Golden State Warriors will look to salvage something from their six-game road trip as they tangle with the surging New York Knicks in the penultimate game of their season-long trek. It hasn’t quite been the trip the Dubs were hoping for as their road woes continued with setbacks in each of the first three games while also coming up a loser as a NBA spread pick in all three. And to make matters worse leading scorer Stephen Curry is out for a few weeks with a shoulder injury. New York extended its season-best winning streak to six sweeping a pair of games from Chicago while going 6-0 as a NBA betting pick.

Golden State Warriors at New York Knicks

Date and Time: Tuesday, December 20, 2022, 7:30 p.m. ET

Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

Opening NBA Odds: OFF

Warriors at Knicks TV Coverage: TNT

Odds Analysis

Golden State’s struggles on the road are perplexing to say the least. The defending champs went 0-3 SU and ATS in the first three games of their current trip. They have just two wins in 16 games away from home and are a league worst 3-13 ATS. And considering the circumstances it’s a good bet the Warriors will be catching points on the NBA betting line in this matchup. Against Philadelphia the Warriors played without Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins in the 118-106 loss failing to cover the 9-point spread. Defense has been a big problem in their road games. The Warriors allow an average of 123 points, 13 points more per game than they give up at home. As a result they are a NBA best pick cashing the OVER in six straight away games and 73.3 percent for the year.

In a sign of how quickly things can change in the NBA, the Knickerbockers were 10-13 and in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings following a blowout home loss to the Mavericks on Dec. 3, their fourth setback in five games. They beat Cleveland, 92-81, the next night starting a six-game stretch where they didn’t lose climbing into the top-six. Every game in the streak was decided by at least eight points with the Knicks winning by an average of 16.3 points. They are a hot NBA spread pick going 6-0 ATS in those games while cashing the UNDER five times. The spurt was buoyed by strong defense with four opponents scoring less than 100 points.

Golden State Warriors

The home/road splits for the Warriors are alarming. I’m not sure if a defending champ has been as poor on the road as the Dubs and there’s seemingly no end in sight. When they dropped all five on an earlier trip, including to Detroit, Charlotte and Orlando, the three worst teams in the East, we could excuse that for being early in the year. Well, there are no excuses now. Their loss to Philly dropped the Warriors to 2-14 on the road, the fewest wins in the West and tied with Orlando for the fewest in the NBA.

It doesn’t help that Curry is out for a few weeks after sustaining a shoulder injury at Indiana on this trip. Curry is among the league leaders averaging 30.0 points helping the Warriors score the fifth-most points in the NBA. The offense will suffer with Curry on the shelf giving Klay Thompson the opportunity to find his shot. Thompson was just 4 of 17 from the field for 12 points against the Sixers and is averaging 18.4 points while shooting below 40 percent from the field. He averaged more than 20 points in each of his last six seasons.

New York Knicks

The Knicks are playing their best basketball of the season with a road sweep of the Bulls extending their winning and payout streak to six. Under Tom Thibodeau the team has never been a real three-point threat, but in order to break out of their skid they turned to the long ball. The Knicks averaged just over 11 made threes per game and hit at least 13 just four times in their first 23 games. They made at least 13 triples four times in their six-game winning streak combining for 35 in their sweep of the Bulls. They still play stingy defense cashing the UNDER as an NBA pick in seven of their last eight games holding opponents to the third-lowest field goal percentage.

Julius Randle continues to put up All-Star numbers leading the team with 22.4 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. Newcomer Jalen Brunson has given the Knicks the element of three-point shooting knocking down a career-best six triples in nine tries in the second win over Chicago. Brunson averages 20.5 points and R.J. Barrett adds 19.2 per game giving the Knicks a varied attack.

Bet Warriors at Knicks

We expected the Warriors to break out of their road slump some time ago yet they just haven’t done it. Now dealing with the loss of Curry while Green and Wiggins among others work through injuries, now is not a good time to back the Dubs, so I’m leaning toward the Knicks as my NBA daily pick at BetRivers sportsbook.

NBA Prediction: New York Knicks / UNDER