NBA Picks: The New York Knicks visit the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night on ESPN with the home team favored. The Knicks have struggled early this season but they are starting to get healthy and they are starting to pick up the triangle offense a little better. They get a big test on Wednesday as they visit a Dallas team that won seven of their first 10 games. Let’s look at the game and NBA picks.
Knicks Finally Getting Healthy
The Knicks have been without a number of key players for the early part of the season but they are finally starting to get players back. Ian Shumpert and Andrea Bargnani should be back and Jose Calderon could be back any day. The team struggled badly earlier in the season because of the new triangle offense being implemented by head coach Derek Fisher and because of injuries.
The good news for the team is that they play in the weak Atlantic Division where they can still contend. The team was struggling to score early in the season as they averaged only 94 points per game while allowing 98 points per contest. They should improve with Bargnani back in the lineup to provide support for Carmelo Anthony.
Mavericks Leading the NBA in Scoring
Dallas has been scoring a lot of points early this season as they are leading the league in points per game at just over 109 per contest. Dallas is one of the deepest teams in the league as they get scoring from all over.
Dirk Nowitzki and Monta Ellis lead the team in scoring but the team also has Chandler Parson, Jameer Nelson, Devin Harris, J.J. Barea and even Richard Jefferson. The team is giving up 100 points per game so they can play some high scoring games but, surprisingly, six of their first ten games went under the NBA betting odds total.
Game Notes
The Dallas Mavericks have won six of the last ten in this series although they are just 5-5 ATS. Three of the last five have gone under the total. The teams met twice last season with each team winning on the road. The Mavericks won 110-108 in New York while the Knicks won 92-80 in Dallas. That was a rare win for the Knicks in Dallas as they are just 2-8 in their last ten in Dallas but they have been competitive, going 5-5 against the NBA betting odds.
NBA Picks
We’ll lay the points and take the Dallas Mavericks in this game and also play the game over.
