Welcome to my NBA picks series. Let's talk about the Celtics vs Knicks game.
Boston
The Celtics, coming off a 4 game road trip, return home to play the Knicks. They went 2/2 on their road trip, winning against the Clippers and Denver and losing to the Lakers and GS. As I predicted, https://steemit.com/nba/@prometheus21/prometheus-nba-picks-1-29-18, Boston was able to close out Denver in their last game, but the game was too close for comfort. The Celtics lost a lot of steam in the second half. Two very impressive aspects from the Denver game, was the low turnover number, at 11 for Boston and very high three point shooting percentage. Tonight, the Celtics play without Kyrie and without Marcus Smart. I have seen Boston without Kyrie this season, and it was not pretty folks.
New York
Oh, the Knicks, they have yet another disappointing year, after a somewhat promising start this season. They are 2/3 in their last five game and they ride a two game winning streak, against the Nets and the Suns. Enes Kanter and Porzingis are putting up big numbers and I have to admit, watching New York play is kind of fun, for some reason. Porzingis had his career high in three point made shots in the Nets game and is, in my opinion the kind of player that will win you championships with the right pieces around him. But as we all know, the Knicks are not the franchise that offers optimal conditions for winning. As far as the Knick form, a good thing to take into account is the fact that their last wins were blowouts. They beat the Suns by 22 on the road, which is not as easy as it sounds.
Stats
The Knicks are the embodiment of mediocrity when it comes to averages, having the 16th defense and 17th offense. They are 23/28 in an Eastern conference which is more competitive than in the last years, but still, it's bad for the Knicks. Boston are 36/15 and are leading the Eastern conference. They excel in defense, allowing teams under 100 points on average. In their previous encounter this season, the Knicks won, 102-93 in a game in which Porzingis had 1 point in 23 minutes play time.
Prediction
I managed to catch the money line at +8, when Kyrie was still in play I guess. Without him, the Knicks have a real chance of winning this. However, caution and the fact that the Knicks have won just 7 games this season on the road, steer this bet towards the spread. Hence, here is my pick for tonight:
* Point Spread, Knicks, +5,5, 1 unit at 1.9 odds
This is all for tonight, sorry I haven't been able to write this earlier today, when the line was really good. I believe this is still a good pick though. Please, be responsible with your gambling. Check out my blog to see what I've been up to, I have written some technical posts. So, if guys are into that, go browse recent activity. I wish you good luck!