NBA Picks 3/7 – Charlotte Hornets @ NY Knicks
by Thomas Quaynor – NBA analyst for Wannamakeabet.com
The Charlotte Hornets (20-46) go on the road to face the New York Knicks (39-27) tonight at 7:30. New York is a 10-point favorite, and the total is 228.5. This is the third and final meeting between these teams, New York won the previous two matchups, 134-131, at home on October 26th and 121-102 at Charlotte on December 9th.
Charlotte has lost three in a row since losing star guard LaMelo Ball for the season after he fractured his right ankle. New York has won 10 in a row after beating the Celtics, 131-129, in double overtime at Boston on Sunday night. Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley scored a career-high 38 points in place of injured starter Jalen Brunson in the win. The Knicks also got big performances from Julius Randle (31 points, 9 rebounds) and RJ Barrett (29 points, 11 rebounds).
WHAT HAPPENED TO CHARLOTTE IN 2022-2023?
For the past two seasons, the Charlotte Hornets just missed out on making the playoffs, finishing 10th in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 but were unable to win the play-in round and advance to the actual playoffs, they finished a respectable 43-39 last season. Things were looking up for 2022-2023, but this season has been a total disaster.
It started in July when leading scorer Miles Bridges (20.2pts, 7rebs) was arrested for domestic violence, he has not played a game this season. The season started with third year star LaMelo Ball missing the first 12 games with an injury, Charlotte went 3-9 without him and did not get any better when Ball returned. Ball suffered a season-ending ankle injury on February 27th and he’ll finish the year playing just 36 games, he did average 23.4 points, 8.4 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals. Charlotte’s third leading scorer (20ppg) Kelly Oubre has missed 25 games due to injury. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Charlotte this year, maybe they’ll get lucky in the draft lottery and land Victor Wembanyama.
THE PICK
The Knicks are the hottest team in the NBA, while Charlotte is already planning for the offseason…lay the 10 points with the Knicks!!
Join Wannamakeabet.com today. Join our monthly “All Sports” Betting League Championship today where you bet points instead of real money on all the major pro sports (NFL, College Football, NBA, NHL, MLB). We’ll put you into a league and give you a bankroll of 50,000 points so you can bet on every game on the board. And you get 50,000 more points every week. Whomever has the most points at the end of the league is the winner and wins real cash based on how many players join! Join today, it’s free!
Stay tuned to our blog for all the latest predictions, analysis, and special promotions for the season brought to you by our staff of professional writers and analysts.