The 23-11 New York Knicks will travel to play the 21-14 Indiana Pacers in an NBA pro basketball game on Thursday night. Tip of time from Indiana is scheduled for 8PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by TNT.
The current NBA odds from this game have the home club Indiana Pacers favored by -5 points. There has been no line movement in this game since the pro basketball odds came out a few hours ago.
The teams met back on November 18th and it was the Knicks with the 88-76 home win as a -7 point betting favorite. The game ended under 186 ½ points.
The Knicks are 10-7 on the road this season. Their two game win streak was broken on Monday in a 102-96 home defeat to the Boston Celtics as a -7 ½ point betting favorite. The game ended over 191 ½ points. We continue to see the Knicks flounder on the defensive end of the court as the team is without point guard Raymond Felton with a broken pinkie. The Knicks have allowed 100 or more points in four of their past five games. Tough part about this loss was the fact that Celtics guard Rajon Rondo did not play due to suspension and Boston was still able to shoot for over 52% from the floor. Carmelo Anthony was off his game with 20 points on 6 of 26 shooting from the floor. Anthony has been suspended for this game for his altercation with Kevin Garnett.
Indiana had circled January 8th on their calendar as it was their first meeting of the year against the Miami Heat. Indiana responds by holding Miami to their lowest point total of the year in an 87-77 home win as a +2 point underdog. The good Pacers defense limits the Heat to just 41% shooting from the floor and they dominate the glass as Indiana grabs 19 more boards than Miami. Indiana is the number two scoring defense in the NBA by allowing just 89 points a game. They hold opponents to just 41.4% from the floor best in the league in defensive field goal percentage. The Pacers are 12-3 straight up on their home court on the year.
