Knicks vs. Wizards prediction, odds: NBA picks, best bets Monday
As expected, the Wizards have been one of the Eastern Conference’s bottom-dwellers thus far in the 2024-25 regular season, boasting just a 2-9 record while dropping seven consecutive games.Of their nine losses, only one (a nine-point loss) has come by fewer than 10 points.Yikes.Unsurprisingly, Washington’s 3-8 record against the spread was second-worst in the NBA as of Sunday, behind only the Sixers, who have significantly underperformed relative to expectations.The Wizards also had the worst net rating (-11.9) by a long shot.However, even more surprising is the Knicks’ slow start to their 2024-25 campaign; they enter Monday’s tilt 7-6 after back-to-back wins over the Nets.Interestingly enough, the issues for the Knicks have come on the defensive end of the floor, where they held the 10th-worst defensive rating, allowing opponents to post the seventh-highest effective field goal percentage against it.Still, assuming Miles McBride (illness) and Karl-Anthony Towns (knee) are good to go for the second night of a home-home back-to-back for the Knicks, we will roll with them against the spread.The Knicks’ offensive attack is simply too potent (fourth in offensive rating), and Washington won’t garner much success offensively due to the Knicks’ defensive length and switchability.The massive disparity in 3-point-shooting also creates significant questions about how Washington could even keep this game competitive, especially since it won’t be putting up points in transition, as the Knicks rank seventh in opponent fast-break points per game.This is a bad matchup for the Wizards.Their half-court offense has no chance at generating enough points to keep inside double-digits of the Knicks.THE PICK: Knicks -14.5 (-112, DraftKings)Andrew Norton handicaps the NBA, WNBA, NFL, college basketball and football, UFC and golf.
During the 2022-23 NBA season, he achieved a standout 14.1% ROI, cashing 60% of his NBA spread picks and leading Tallysight in its SportsIQ metri...