In tonight’s Eastern Conference match-up, we will see Orlando Magic hosting New York Knicks at Amway Center in hopes to win and break their losing streak at home court.
Orlando Magic have lost both 2 home games and will try to show their fans they can do better tonight. In the course of those 2 games, Orlando has been beaten by Chicago Bulls (83:105) and Boston Celtics (88:104). Those results are quite disappointing. Losing a game is one thing, but losing by 22 and 16.. well let’s say it’s not great. Looking at their previous match-up against Boston Celtics, the match did not start that bad for the home side. They were only behind by 2 points by the end of the 1st quarter, however, Orlando underperformed in the 2nd quarter, letting Celtics run away with 11 point lead. The 3rd quarter we saw good performance from the Magic, who were even able to outscore Boston, it was only for 3 points (31:28), but it was something.Prior to the last quarter, Orlando were 8 points behind but were unable to catch up with Boston, who once again dominated, outscored Orlando by 8 points and ended the match with a final score of 88:104.
New York Knicks are coming into this match hot, with 3 consecutive W behind them, winning 6 matches in the past 7, despite the bad start of the season (0-3). In the last match, we again saw them coming from behind and taking the W in the last quarter. In the match against Hornets, Knicks were trailing from the start. They were outscored in the 1st and 2nd quarter, whereas the 3rd ended in a tie. With that, they went into the last quarter 11 points behind, but it was not too much for them. With great FG% (64.7%) and keeping their opponents at only 28%, they managed to outscore Hornets by 16 points, this getting a much-deserved win. The final score was 118:113.
Verdict & Prediction
Now for the question, who will win? Knicks have played their 3rd game in the past 4 days which will result in some fatigue, especially because they needed to work hard in the past 2 games to come back from a double digits deficit in a single quarter. This will be a huge advantage for Orlando who desperately need a win. For that reason, I see Orlando as a favorite in this match-up. We sent out a prediction on Orlando to cover the -5.5 points spread, but at the current odds there is not a lot of value.
In addition, the fatigue of Knicks and poor offensive performance from Orlando (who failed to score more than 88 points in the last 2 games) suggests this won’t be a high scoring match, which will most likely end in neither team reaching 100 point mark easily.
Prediction: Under 219 points
Odds: 1.86 at Pinnacle (subscribers were able to bet the same lines at 1.94)
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