The New York Knicks (41-28) and Brooklyn Nets (26-44) continue their rivalry on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. The former hopes to make it three wins out of three games in the match-up this season.
Brooklyn has dropped five straight games and is seen as a 7.5-point underdog in the clash by bookmaker BetOnline. The odds for the Nets to cover the spread are -110, with the same odds on offer for the Knicks to beat the spread. A relatively low-scoring affair is projected in the Saturday matinee, as the total is set at 204 points.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 20th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
The Knicks dominated the first head-to-head battle of the season in December 121-102 and also beat Brooklyn 108-103 in January. Both were road games, and Saturday’s meeting promises to be even more difficult for the Nets, who have gone 10-25 away from home in 2023-24.
Brooklyn’s campaign started reasonably well, but the wheels suddenly came off in mid-December, and it’s starting to look like the team’s five-year playoff streak is about to come to an end. The Nets have had just 11 wins in 2024, and even a coaching change hasn’t provided a much-needed spark.
Kevin Ollie took over from Jacques Vaugh during the All-Star break and has guided the team to only five victories in 16 games. The current six-game losing streak is Brooklyn’s longest in two years.
The Knicks have also struggled a bit lately, going 10-11 since the beginning of February, but the team remains on course for a top-six finish in the Eastern Conference. With four more match-ups against the league’s bottom-feeders following Saturday’s outing, Tom Thibodeau’s men are in a good position to make a winning run and improve their chances of sealing home-court advantage for the playoffs.
Thibodeau recently oversaw a four-game winning streak, which was only ended by a 113-100 defeat against the title-defending Denver Nuggets. Jalen Brunson led the way during the run with a pair of 40-point efforts, and Josh Hart’s influence on the team continues to grow.
Hart hadn’t tallied any triple-doubles during his eight-year NBA career before recording a 10-10-10 line on Jan. 30 in a 118-103 win over Utah. Now, he boasts three of them in this month alone and has been the team’s best rebounder in four of the last six games. The one-two punch of Brunson and Hart is set to do major damage again on Saturday.
