Friday Night Basketball Betting - New York Knicks vs- Memphis Grizzlies
by Tim Furious
The dwindling playoff chances of the Memphis Grizzlies lay in the hands of the other teams clawing for a chance at post season glory. The best thing that Memphis can do, and hope for, is to keep winning games. A nicely packaged two-game win streak, which includes a thrashing of the Boston Celtics, needs to be the basis of their momentum as we enter the final month of the season.
The exciting play of Rudy Gay lately has involved a 21-and-10 effort against the Nets and a 28-point performance against the Celtics. That’s all fine and dandy, but Gay’s production drops dramatically at home where he’s averaging just 17.2 points per game.
Memphis has mirrored Gay’s performance at the FedEX Forum in the win/loss column and in their betting trends. The Grizzlies are 2-7 SU when playing at home, and are a terrifying 1-8 ATS when playing the role of hosts.
The Knicks are 4-4 ATS in their past 8 road games so they have neither been haphazardly destructive to their betting backers, nor have they have been incredibly rewarding. On the road against the Grizzlies, they’re gone 3-2 ATS but those metrics date all the way back to 2004 and since the Memphis Grizzlies are virtually a renewed team this year, that shouldn’t be the deciding factor when you throw your money around tonight.
New York Knicks (22-42) vs. Memphis Grizzlies (34-31)
Friday, March 12th --- FedEX Forum --- 8:00pm EST
NBA Betting Line: Memphis -8 (210.5)
To say that the Knicks don’t travel well is like saying Tracy McGrady is a deserving All-Star. With a devastating 1-8 SU record in their past 9 games on the road, the Knicks have abandoned all sense of hope this season. Quite frankly, they probably could have done that when this season began.
Memphis hasn’t been a completely reliable team, but they have matchup issues for the beleaguered Knicks all over the map and the more I see of the Randolph-Gasol duo for the Grizzlies, the more I like it. The duo combined for 46-points when they played New York last, and beating up on a thin front court will lead to a comfortable betting victory for Memphis.
