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Welcome to a wild, COVID-infected Christmas Day slate. We begin in New York, where the Knicks play host to a Hawks team unrecognizable from the one which ripped the heart out of fans in last year’s postseason. How do we bet this one? Let’s have a look.
Atlanta Hawks vs. New York Knicks (-7) Total: 210
Strangely enough, COVID has seemed to help the New York Knicks. They’ve split their last four games both straight up and against the spread since losing a whole host of players to the league’s health and safety protocols.
In the wake of RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin and others hitting the shelf, rookies Miles McBride and Quentin Grimes were able to showcase their skills and prove themselves against NBA teams. Derrick Rose was lost to a foot injury through all of this, which forced the Knicks to re-insert Kemba Walker into the rotation, who proceeded to score over 31 points per game, culminating in a 44-point night last time out.
The bottom line is this could have gone much worse, and there are some positives to take out of this for New York. It’s harder to be as positive about the Hawks.
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While the Knicks have returned Barrett Toppin and are left with just two players in the protocols, the Hawks are missing Trae Young, Lou Williams, Clint Capela, Danilo Gallinari, De’Andre Hunter, Timothe Luwalu-Cabarrot and Onyeka Okongwu.
That’s essentially the entire starting five and a lot of the bench, leaving Bogdan Bogdanovic, Cam Reddish and John Collins to pick up all the slack. While Reddish has been a revelation, it’s hard to be excited about a team which lost to the Magic in a game which it was still favored in and then barely beat the struggling Sixers.
Even with those wins, more players are now in the protocols. Atlanta has struggled on defense all year and ranks 21st in points allowed per 100 possessions for the month of December. While New York’s defense has always been bad this year, New York has at least put up a 114 offensive rating in the past two games and has finally found ways to score the ball.
This revamped Knicks offense should take care of business here and Julius Randle should feast inside on a decimated frontcourt. I’ll happily lay the points and I’ll also take a look at some Randle and Mitchell Robinson props.
Edge: Knicks -7
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