The New York Knicks are in trouble.
New York is still 40-23 and holds a fairly secure four-game lead over the Milwaukee Bucks for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, but point guard Jalen Brunson suffered an ankle injury and will miss at least two weeks. Without him, the Knicks’ lone All-Star is center Karl-Anthony Towns, who’s averaging 24.2 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game this season.
Towns was fine in New York’s first game since Brunson’s injury — scoring 23 points and snagging 10 rebounds — but the Knicks’ offensive showing was pitiful, as they scored just 95 points, their second-lowest total of the season. New York will hope to bounce back tonight when it takes on the Sacramento Kings at 10:30 p.m. ET in California’s capital.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Knicks are three-point favorites and the total is set for 219.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bet centered around Big Bodega.
Best Karl-Anthony Towns Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook
Karl-Anthony Towns U12.5 Rebounds (-105)
This season, Towns’ rebounding output has jumped by five from 2023-24, when he played predominantly power forward alongside Rudy Gobert in his final campaign with the Minnesota Timberwolves. In fact, in addition to posting career highs in rebounds and total rebounding percentage, he’s leading the league in defensive rebounding percentage, the first time in his career he has been the NBA’s pace-setter in any statistical category. Overall, he’s been excellent in New York, and Knicks fans should be happy with the trade that brought him over from Minnesota.
But he’s been a little bit inconsistent as a rebounder, posting three games with 10 or fewer boards in his last six. Plus, Sacramento is one of the best teams in the league at controlling the boards, allowing the sixth-fewest in the league this season. The man predominantly responsible for that — center Domantas Sabonis — is out with a hamstring strain, but in the four games since Sabonis went down, the Kings have still allowed the fourth-fewest boards. Sabonis’ compatriot, Jonas Valančiūnas, has averaged 14.3 points and 12.8 boards per game as a starter, including a 17-rebound performance against the LA Clippers last night.
