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André Snellings
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Eric Moody
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Eric Moody
ESPN Writer
- Eric Moody is a writer for fantasy football, men’s and women’s basketball, and sports betting at ESPN. Eric joined ESPN in 2021 after working as a senior fantasy analyst at Pro Football Network. Prior to that, he spent much of his career as a manager at a Fortune 100 financial services company.
After weeks of group play and knockout drama in the Emirates NBA Cup, we’re down to two teams — the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. Tipoff for Tuesday’s championship game at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is set for 8:30 p.m. ET.
The Knicks, led by Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns and playing in their first season under coach Mike Brown, are 2.5-point favorites against the Spurs.
San Antonio knocked off NBA Cup favorite Oklahoma City Thunder in Saturday’s thrilling semifinal, as Victor Wembanyama returned to the lineup after a three-week absence and played 21 minutes in the narrow two-point win.
So what can be expected when the Knicks and Spurs collide? And is there a betting value that stands out? Here are NBA betting experts Andre Snellings and Eric Moody to offer their insights.
Odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook and are as of publication.
Victor Wembanyama to win NBA Cup MVP (+400)
Snellings: While the Spurs are only slight underdogs to win the Cup (+120, to Knicks -142), Wembanyama is a relatively large underdog to win Cup MVP at +400 to Brunson’s -120. But Wembanyama returned from his long injury layoff with a bang on Saturday as the clear-cut biggest impact player for the Spurs in the semifinals even in a minutes restriction, and if he can replicate that level in a win on Tuesday he’d likely get the MVP votes.
Wemby also has a history of dominating the Knicks: He has played them once in each of the previous two seasons, scoring 40+ points in both games and averaging 41.0 PPG, 19.0 RPG, 5.5 APG, 5.0 3PG and 4.0 stocks (steals + blocks). Even pro-rated to a minutes restriction, a Wemby performance anywhere near this level per-minute would make him MVP-worthy.
Karl-Anthony Towns OVER 21.5 points (-102)
Moody: Towns has started slower than expected after a career year with the Knicks, but he has still averaged 23.6 PPG on 54.5% shooting and remains one of the league’s best three-point-shooting centers at 44.2%. He now faces a Spurs defense allowing the fourth-most points to centers.
Even with Wembanyama back from a calf injury, whose length makes interior scoring difficult, Towns’ inside-out skill set gives him a strong chance to clear this line. He hs also averaged 20.8 PPG against Wemby in his career.
