I’m on the Knicks -7.5 at home vs the Hawks for these reasons:

- Injury to the Hawks lethal starters Trae Young, Bogdanovic, DeAndre Hunter, and Jalen Johnson will be a key factor to this game. Though they all may be deemed active by tipoff, we can’t expect electric output from them, especially Trae Young who has an Achilles injury but is going to play through it.

- Defense of the Knicks has gotten better these past five games, with only 1 team scoring over 106 on them in the past 6 games. They are the healthier team with the better defensive players to limit these banged up Hawks.

- Karl Anthony Towns has no equal matchup here. And there is also no equal matchup for Brunson, being that Trae doesn’t play defense at all. Hawks do have a deeper bench, but the Knicks are used to playing an insane amount of minutes per game, so we will be seeing a lot of starters vs bench players tonight in the garden.

Official Play: Knicks -7.5

Side Bet: Trae Young Under 21.5 points

Hail Mary: Under 238