NBA Picks: The red-hot Portland Trail Blazers visit the slumping New York Knicks on Sunday. The Blazers have been one of the top teams this season winning 14 of their first 18 games. They will be favored in this game against a New York team that lost 14 of their first 18 games. Here is a look at the contest and NBA picks.
Portland Trail Blazers 4-3 ATS on the Road
The Blazers have played just seven road games this season but so far they are above .500 against the spread at 4-3. The Blazers are not a fluke as they are averaging 104 points per game while allowing 97 per contest. Portland has been a good team to bet under the total at home going under in eight of their 11 games but on the road they have gone over the NBA betting total in four of their seven games.
Nothing Going Right for the Knicks
The Knicks are a complete mess. They have a hobbled Carmelo Anthony and nothing else. Derek Fisher looks in over his head as the coach and the roster is full of stiffs. The team still is stuck with Amar’e Stoudemire who hasn’t played well in four years. It is so bad that no one on the team other than Anthony averages more than 12 points per game. The team plays very little defense so they can’t even stay competitive in most games. Even though the team recently lost 13 of 15 games, Anthony isn’t panicking.
“That comes down to us as individuals whether we panic or not,” Anthony said. “Me being one of the leaders of this team, I’m not gonna panic, so none of my teammates are gonna panic. Every day is a new day. And tomorrow we got another opportunity to try to turn this thing around.”
Anthony added that he is trying not to let his team get into a losing mindset. “It’s a challenging mindset,” Anthony said, I think anytime you’re losing basketball games, negativity, lack of confidence can start to seep in.”
Series Notes
The Blazers have won seven of the last 10 in this series and they are 5-4-1 against the NBA betting line. They have won and covered the last four meetings. The Blazers won 102-91 at home and 94-90 in New York last season. The Knicks have not won in this series since 2012. Portland has won six of the last ten in New York with four of the last six going under.
NBA Picks
We’ll go with the Blazers minus the points on Sunday.
