If the Golden State Warriors don’t figure out their issues on the road the defending champs could be looking at the play-in tournament or worse come season’s end. And their current road trip went from bad to worse with three straight losses and leading scorer Stephen Curry out for a few weeks with a shoulder injury sustained in the second game of the excursion. The good news is that the season-long six-game trip is nearing its end with one more tilt remaining after Tuesday’s showdown in the Garden against the New York Knicks.
The matchup between the Warriors and Knicks takes place on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 and will air live on TNT with tip off at 7:30 p.m. ET from Madison Square Garden in New York. BookMaker.eu will have betting options for every game on the NBA schedule.
Warriors vs Knicks Odds
Golden State Warriors (Check Back Later)
New York Knicks (Check Back Later)
Total (Check Back Later)
Season to Date
We mention this every time the Warriors are featured, but it’s such an alarming note that it has to be brought up. The Dubs are just a different team on the road, and different as in bad. They dropped the first three games of their current road trip falling to 2-14 SU. They also failed to cover the spread in any of those games and they are the least profitable team in the NBA on the road going 3-13 ATS. They have been unable to win on the road due to an atrocious defense. A staple of the club during its championship years, the Warriors are among the worst this season in preventing points. They rank 26th overall allowing an average of 116.8 points with that number ballooning to 123 points on the road. They cashed the OVER in six straight road games with OVER 11-4-1 in their 16 road tilts.
A nice run of success vaulted the Knickerbockers into the top-6 in the Eastern Conference standings. Just a few weeks ago they were plodding along with four losses in five games following a home trouncing by the Mavs earlier this month, but they’ve looked like one of the best in the East and the entire NBA during a 6-0 SU and ATS streak. The run was fueled by a defense that held four of six opponents to fewer than 100 points while allowing an average of 97 points with the NBA’s best defensive rating since Dec. 4. They cashed the UNDER in seven of eight games after playing below the total in a 114-91 win over the Bulls on Friday.
Golden State Warriors
The Warriors have dealt with injuries before and they’ll have to navigate a few weeks without Curry, who sustained a shoulder injury in the 125-119 loss to Indiana last week. We all know about his exploits shooting the basketball, but Curry is one of the better defenders on the club. In their first game without the two-time MVP, the Warriors looked out of sync on both ends of the floor in a 118-106 loss to Philadelphia. Jordan Poole picked up some of the slack scoring 29 points, but he was the only player to score more than 17 in the game.
With Curry out now would be a good time for Klay Thompson to break out of his season long shooting slump. Thompson was just 4 of 17 from the field for 12 points against the Sixers and he’s having one of the worst offensive seasons of his career. He’s shot better than 42 percent from the field in every NBA season and has averaged at least 20 points in each of the previous six seasons. He’s shooting 39.8 percent this year with an average of 18.4 points.
New York Knicks
You could say the Knicks have dominated opponents during their winning streak. Five of their wins were by double figures with three of them by at least 19 points. They outscored teams by 16.3 points earning payouts in every game. More importantly three of the wins came inside the Garden where the Knicks had struggled. Before their streak the Knicks had dropped five in a row at home going 0-4-1 ATS. They knocked off Cleveland, Atlanta and Sacramento during their streak improving to 7-7 SU and 5-7-2 ATS.
The acquisition of Jalen Brunson has turned out to be a good move. The former Dallas player is averaging 20.5 points and 6.3 assists through his first 29 games giving the club a solid inside-outside threat along with Julius Randle. Brunson hit a career-best six three-pointers in nine attempts and backcourt mate Quentin Grimes was 5 of 9 from deep. They each scored 22 points joining R.J. Barrett, who led all players with 27 points, in the 20+ club. And the Knicks discovered the three-pointer hitting 35 in the two-game sweep of the Bulls.
Warriors vs Knicks Prediction
Things are likely to get worse for the Warriors before they get better. Not only is Curry out for the foreseeable future, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins are dealing with injuries that kept them out of games and their status is unknown. And the Knicks have figured things out on offense putting them in a good spot to cover the line in this matchup.
Prediction: New York Knicks and UNDER
