Orlando Magic vs New York Knicks betting tips and predictions for Thursday’s NBA game on NBA TV. New York hopes to sweep the regular season series against the Magic as they head to Orlando for tonight’s game. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Orlando Magic
With 2 wins in their last 3 games, the Magic have actually played well lately. A play-in tournament spot is unrealistic at this point, but this team has the opportunity to make life miserable for a few teams chasing playoff seeding like the Wizards and Clippers they just beat. Paolo Banchero has wrapped up the rookie of the year award averaging 20 points per game this season, he has a bright future ahead of him with this organization.
Orlando lost both meetings with the Knicks this season, they last played back in early February and with Miami playing last night the Magic should have the rest advantage here. In the last 7 meetings they have just 2 wins though, so it promises to be a challenging game tonight.
New York Knicks
Julius Randle followed up his 57 point explosion with just 15 points last night as the Knicks fell in Miami 127-120. The good news is the Nets who are behind them in the standings are also losing, so the 5th seed isn’t in question. After losing back to back games though, the Knicks could definitely use a win here. They’ve been really good on the road this year with a 22-15 SU record.
Plus they’ve also covered the spread 24 times which is one of the best marks in the NBA. Jalen Brunson looks fully recovered from his foot injury, he will be the key for the Knicks if they want to make a postseason run. They’ve been able to win 12 of their last 18 games played on a Thursday, so there’s a good chance they sweep the season series here.
The oddsmakers are favoring the Knicks by just 2.5 points which is a really good opportunity to bet on. They’re outscoring the Magic by more than 5 points over the last 10 meetings, winning 7 of those. I’m backing the road team here.
Orlando Magic vs New York Knicks Predictions & Odds
We’ve seen quite the explosion in points scored over the last 2 Knicks games with a total of 247 and 274 points vs Miami and Minnesota. That kind of pace will be hard to keep up with long term, so I’m expecting things to return to normal here. The 2 meetings vs Orlando saw just 217 and 200 points this season, that’s been the story in games between these two teams for a while now with just 202.2 points per game in the last 10 head-to-head.
The over has cashed just twice in those 10 games, so if you’ve been paying attention to those numbers you’ve won a lot of money. The Knicks enter game as the 4th slowest team in the league, averaging just 99.5 possessions per game. It’s time they return to their roots and start playing some defense to win games. I say we back the under in this one.
