Knicks vs. Timberwolves: Can Jeremy Lin Help New York Cover the Spread?
New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin is the toast of the NBA after last night's 92-85 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, which also allowed the team to cover the spread for the seventh consecutive game.
Las Vegas odds-makers opened up the Knicks as 7.5-point road underdogs in their Saturday matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but more than 85 percent of the action is landing in Lin's direction.
The former Harvard Crimson guard scored a career-high 38 points in Friday night's affair, which was actually four more than the NBA's leading scorer, Kobe Bryant.
Sports bettors have certainly taken notice of the Knicks' 7-0 ATS run, covering those contests by an average of 8.3 points per game.
Leaving the electric atmosphere of Madison Square Garden may cause the team to suffer a letdown in traveling to play inside the Target Center, though. New York has dropped 15 of its last 16 games when tipping off as a road underdog of 6.5-9.0 points the last two-plus seasons. Minnesota has tallied a 14-6 record the last 20 meetings of this series, including two straight wins inside tonight's venue.
There's no question that the current betting odds are inviting as much action as possible on the underdogs, especially considering that the Knicks hadn't covered consecutive games during the 2011-2012 campaign until this recent streak.
The home team has covered the last four games in this series by an average of 13 points.
