The first nationally televised game tonight will see the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors go head-to-head. The Raptors have been red hot, while the Knicks are coming off an impressive overtime game against the Oklahoma City Thunder that they nearly won without Carmelo Anthony. Will Anthony play tonight? Find out this and more, including the live stream link, betting line, TV channel, a preview and prediction.
Game Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
Channel: TNT (Sportsnet One locally)
Location: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada
Live Stream: NBA on TNT
Betting Line: -9 TOR; 201 O/U
As mentioned above, the Raptors have been killing it lately, winning nine games in a row. The hot hand has been shared each night, whether it be from starters Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciusnas or Luis Scola, or off the bench with guys like Cory Joseph, Terrence Ross, Patrick Peterson and Bismack Biyombo all playing key roles lately, making this team go.
Toronto has been on such a role that they now own the second seed in the Eastern Conference by a comfortable margin and are catching up to the Cleveland Cavaliers quickly. Just 2.5 games behind Cleveland, the Raptors start a stretch of seven games that are extremely winnable.
While New York has been able to hang with anyone most nights, the Raptors catch that at a good time when star forward Carmelo Anthony has been dealing with some knee soreness, and he's questionable for tonight's game.
So just how likely is it that Anthony plays tonight?
It'll depend really on how he's feeling during the pregame shootaround. If he's pain free, he'll go. If not, the Knicks aren't going to risk him in a January game. Ultimately, he should be considered a game-time decision, so we'll probably find out about an hour before tipoff.
If the Knicks are without him, they'll try to replicate what they did against OKC. Offensively, they spread the ball well and five players scored at least 15 points. Defensively, they tried to make the Thunder as much of a jump-shooting team as possible, and protected the rim well, racking up seven blocks as a team.
That will really be there only shot tonight as well. New York must make Toronto a jump-shooting team by protecting the rim. If they can do that, they'll have a good shot. The question is, can they?
Prediction: Raptors 99, Knicks 95
