NBA Picks & Predictions for Sunday, March 13, 2011
By Nate Steele
(The Spread) - The New York Knicks begin a home-and-home series with the Indiana Pacers Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden.
New York sports a 34-30 record coming into action Sunday and is 6-4 in its last 10 games, which comprises the amount of games the Knicks have played since the arrival of Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. In home games, New York is 18-13. Indiana has a 27-38 overall record and are 10-23 on the road.
Oddsmakers and online sports book Sportsbook.com have made the Knicks 8-point favorites, while the over-under is set at 218. According to the latest trends, the Pacers are 7-1 ATS in the last eight meetings in New York. The under is 4-1 in the last five meetings. Indiana is 11-5 ATS in the last 16 meetings. The underdog and the road team are both 7-1 ATS in the last eight meetings.
Indiana is suffering through a six-game losing skid that has seen it lose every contest by at least eight points. Despite the horrendous stretch, the Pacers are still locked into the eighth playoff spot.
FREE NBA PICK: Most of the trends point towards taking Indiana in this game and this is also the NBA where anyone can beat anyone on any given night. While I normally would not advocate trying to pick when a team might pull out of its funk, this might be the perfect opportunity. The Pacers have seemingly risen to the occasion to play New York in the past and they are a team that is desperate for any sort of good performance to help keep them in the playoff race. Of course, the Knicks are dangerous with Carmelo and A'mare and company but they are also wildly inconsistent. I am going to bank on this being one of the times where maybe they take their opponent a bit too lightly.
SUNDAY'S FREE NBA PICK: INDIANA PACERS +8