Cavs Are Favorites Against Hosting Knicks

The Cleveland Cavs are favorites as they visit Madison Square Garden this evening to take on the New York Knicks.

Bovada has the Cavs as -6.5-point favorites after Knicks guard Derrick Rose has been listed as doubtful with an ankle injury.

The Cavs are 33-15 straight up with a 20-26 against-the-spread record. The Knicks are 22-29 straight up this season but have covered in 29 of those outings. This is the third meeting between these two teams this season, the second in which Rose has missed.

Looking at the trends from the previous two meetings, bettors are expecting a thrashing. Back in October the Cavs won by 29 points in a home victory. More recently, in December, the Cavs won 126-94 in Madison Square Garden. The Cavs are on an eight-game win streak against the Knicks, covering in four of those contests.

Trends that count against betting on Cleveland include the team going 1-4 straight up and against the spread in their last five road games. The Cavs have only covered in 7 road games this season.

The total for the game is set at 217 points. It is worth noting that when the Cavs are away from Cleveland, they allow opponents to average over 1oo points.