The Hawks are taking on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Monday afternoon. Here are the best player props to consider for Trae Young on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Trae Young Best Prop Bet
The Hawks are 6.5-point underdogs against the Knicks, with an o/u of 236.5 on DraftKings Sportsbook. Here are the latest lines for Trae Young: o/u 24.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 10.5 assists, and 3.5 three-pointers.
One of the great rivalries in sports is renewed as Trae Young and Knicks fans again go to war. Trae Young is making his return to Madison Square Garden, where he and the Hawks got a win in the NBA Cup quarterfinals earlier this season. The Hawks won all three matchups against the Knicks in the 2024 calendar year and will look to pounce on a Knicks team that is showing some vulnerabilities to start the new year. The Knicks are off to a 3-6 start in the new year and their star center Karl-Anthony Towns has missed back-to-back games. The Hawks currently sit as the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference and are among a group of teams tightly packed together chasing down the Knicks, who are currently the 3-seed in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks need to separate themselves from that tightly packed group and try to be the team that can chase down the top teams in the conference instead.
The storyline of Trae Young owning the New York Knicks is one that is unavoidable when these teams face off. Ever since Young defeated the Knicks in the 2021 postseason, there has been a bitter rivalry between him and the New York fanbase. Young has had a lot of success against the Knicks when it comes to winning games, but his individual stats are not as good as one would think given the narrative that exists. Over his past eight games against the Knicks, Young is only averaging 20 points per game. That being said, Young and the Hawks are in good form coming into this game. They have won back-to-back games against the Suns and Celtics heading into this matchup. Young dropped 43 points against the Suns and 28 points against the Celtics in those wins.
My favorite prop bet for Trae Young is for him to score under 24.5 points. The Knicks are one of the best defensive teams in the league. They rank in the top six in opponent second-chance points allowed, opponent points on fast breaks allowed, and opponent points off of turnovers allowed. Overall, they rank 10th in scoring defense, and they held the Hawks to just 108 points the last time these teams faced. There is no doubt that the Knicks’ players and coaches have a lot of respect for Trae Young, and probably even some fear over what he has done to them in the past. That is part of the reason they have defended him so effectively over the past few meetings. Young has gone under 24.5 points in seven of the past eight matchups between these two teams. He has gotten a lot of defensive attention which has forced him to be more of a distributor and that is why he has double-digit assists in each of the last five matchups against the Knicks. It should be more of the same in this matchup as Young returns to MSG.
