The Daily Sweat: Can Steph Curry make NBA history vs. the Knicks?
Stephen Curry is on the precipice of history.
The Golden State Warriors star drilled five 3-pointers in his team’s 102-100 win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night. As a result, Curry is now just two treys away from breaking Ray Allen’s NBA record for career 3-point shots made.
Allen hit 2,973 3-pointers during his Hall of Fame career. Curry, now with 2,972 threes, will have the chance to make history on Tuesday night at the NBA’s most iconic venue: Madison Square Garden.
The Warriors will face the Knicks in the second game of a back-to-back and are 3.5-point favorites at BetMGM. It’s the third game of a five-game East Coast trip for the Warriors. They lost 102-93 on Saturday night to Philadelphia as 3-point favorites and were unable to cover as 4-point favorites against the Pacers.
The Warriors are 17-9-1 ATS this season, but just 4-4 ATS as a road favorite.
The Knicks, meanwhile, have lost three straight and six of their last eight. It’s been a rough stretch after the hot start to the season that seemed to have New York fans energized.
Now 12-15 on the year, the Knicks can halt that rough stretch against one of the NBA’s best teams. And with the Warriors in town, there is going to be plenty of energy in the building despite the Knicks’ recent struggles.
The Knicks haven’t performed well for bettors in this spot. They are just 4-10 ATS at home, including an 0-3 mark as a home underdog. Will that streak come to an end on what should be a record-setting night in New York?
Here’s a look at the rest of the sports betting slate for Tuesday:
Two other NBA games on the card
In addition to the Warriors-Knicks game, there are two other NBA games on the schedule.
One of those games is the Brooklyn Nets at home against the Toronto Raptors. The Nets are 8.5-point favorites in this one, two days after one of the best outings of Kevin Durant’s career.
Durant went for 51 points in Sunday night’s win over the Detroit Pistons. It tied the third-most points Durant has scored in his career. What will he be able to do for an encore back at the Barclays Center?
Brooklyn is 11-15-1 ATS this season, including just 3-9-1 ATS as a home favorite. The Nets, currently in first place in the East, have covered in three of their last four, however.
Elsewhere, the Portland Trail Blazers host the Phoenix Suns, the team with the NBA’s best record (21-5). The Blazers have lost eight of their last nine games but are just 2.5-point underdogs. The Suns are in the second of a back-to-back, having lost to the Clippers 111-95 on Monday night.
What about college basketball?
It’s finals week for a lot of schools around the country, so the college basketball slate is a little light. The most interesting matchup involves a team that entered the season with a ton of hype: Memphis.
Memphis, now in Penny Hardaway’s fourth season as head coach, signed the top recruiting class in the country. That class included Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren, two of the top four players in the class of 2021, according to Rivals.com. Adding those prospects to an already talented team was expected to give Hardaway’s team a major boost.
It has not gone according to plan so far. The Tigers started the season 5-0 but have since lost four straight to Iowa State, Georgia, Ole Miss and Murray State. And on Tuesday night is the most-challenging opponent Memphis has faced this year: No. 6 Alabama.
Alabama, which knocked off Gonzaga and Houston in its last two outings, is a 4.5-point favorite in Memphis with the total set at 155.5.
Will Hardaway’s young Tigers be able to get off the deck? Or will Alabama continue its impressive early season run?
