The NBA is back in play, how exciting! The Detroit Pistons will go to the city with the greatest lights, New York City, for their home debut against the New York Knick after every team in the league has already played at least one game to begin the season. Join us for our NBA oddsseries, where we’ll make our prediction and pick for the Pistons vs. Knicks game.
Head coach Dwane Casey, who is in his fifth season leading the Pistons, will be looking for his team to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2019. Detroit had a miserable 22-59 record a year ago, but there is some hope for this squad because of its youthful and promising players.
The New York Knicks appeared to be a real threat around the league not too long ago when they had a 41-31 record and were a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference. However, that reason for joy was short-lived when they took a few steps back in last year’s campaign and finished eight games below.500 at 37-45. New York thinks it has all the necessary components to return to the postseason despite last year’s disappointment and its 115-112 overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in the season’s opening game.
Thanks to FanDuel, here are the NBA odds for the Pistons-Knicks game.
NBA Odds: Pistons-Knicks Odds
Los Angeles Lakers: -7 (+110)
Knicks of New York: -7 (-110)
Over: 219.5 (-110) (-110)
Under: 219.5 (-110)
Why The Pistons Could Cover The Spread
Without a doubt, Detroit is prepared to demonstrate that, despite being in the midst of a clear rebuild, they are a competitive team. Undoubtedly, they had a rough start to their previous game against Orlando, as they found themselves licking their wounds after falling behind 21-6 early on. But the team that has missed the playoffs 11 times in the last 13 years proved that they are still tenacious as they came back to grab the lead at halftime and finally register their first victory of the year.
Bojan Bogdanovic’s debut on Wednesday gave Detroit a boost as he scored 24 points on 8/16 shooting and made 60% of his three-point attempts. The Pistons will need their best players to come out if they want to go 2-0 and cover the spread in New York, whether it was Bojan lighting it up from downtown or point guard Cade Cunningham hitting huge shots when Detroit needed it the most.
More specifically, Detroit will need to keep up its high shooting percentage and cut down on its turnovers. The Pistons only committed 13 turnovers in their game against Orlando, and they also made 36.8% of their three-point tries. Not to mention, rookie guard Jalen Ivey demonstrated all the makings of a future star in this league with 19 points on 8-15 shooting from the field. Expect the young Purdue product to keep lighting it up and be a major factor in Detroit’s victory on Friday night.
Why The Knicks Could Cover The Spread
Unfortunately, the Knicks’ fortunes appeared to be turning around just two short seasons ago, but like they frequently do, New York let everyone down by completely missing the playoffs. Tom Thibodeau, the team’s head coach, undoubtedly has some effective tools at his disposal, but if the Knicks are to have any impact this year, they must adopt a more dependable playing approach.
When the Knicks suit up to play later this evening, they will attempt to play the whole 48 minutes of basketball despite already being 0-1 on the season. New York must dig deep and figure out a way to get out to a better start if they want to cover the spread and prevent falling 0-2 for the fourth time in their previous six years. New York only had a small lead once in the first half of the game against the Grizzlies and fell behind by as much as 19 points in the third quarter before starting to make up ground. It was too little, too late, but the Knickerbockers must get Madison Square Garden rocking from the first tip.
Who will take the reins and guide this Knicks team to its first win of the season, furthermore? First impressions suggest that this team will be led by the top three playmakers from New York, Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson, and R.J. Barrett. To help their team defeat the Pistons, the three will need to be more effective in every area than they were on Wednesday, when they combined for just 50 points.
Final Pistons-Knicks Prediction & Pick
On paper, the Knicks appear to be the more complete team, but don’t discount the Pistons, who are being led by a young movement that very few teams in the NBA have. Despite their inexperience, Detroit is a fearless team that doesn’t seem to be under any time constraints. Pick the Pistons to cover the +7 point spread and perhaps begin the season 2-0 for the first time since the 2018–19 campaign.
Final Prediction & Pick for Pistons vs. Knicks: Pistons +7 (+110)
The initial post on ClutchPoints was titled “NBA Odds: Pistons vs. Knicks forecast, odds and selection – 10/21/2022.”
