Trail Blazers vs Knicks Picks, Prediction Today | Tuesday, Jan. 9

Here's everything you need to know about Trail Blazers vs Knicks on Tuesday, Jan. 9 — our expert Trail Blazers vs Knicks picks and prediction for today.

The Portland Trail Blazers face the New York Knicks on Tuesday in their fifth straight road game to start the new year. After a loss to the Suns and two to the Mavericks in Dallas, Portland got a hard-fought overtime win against the Nets on Sunday. Deandre Ayton (knee), Matisse Thybulle (foot) and Jabari Walker (knee) are all on the injury report, with Ayton unlikely to suit up.

On the other side is the Knicks, who haven’t lost a game in 2024 since trading away RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn.

Let's get to our Trail Blazers vs Knicks prediction and pick.

Tuesday marks the Trail Blazers' fifth road game in nine days. They haven’t played a back-to-back in that time, but they’ve played every other day since New Years Day — not the easiest schedule. Unfortunately for Portland, the road trip doesn’t end in New York. It will play a back-to-back against the Thunder and Timberwolves on Wednesday and Thursday night, and it’s not out of the question to think the overtime win over the Nets will be its lone victory of the road trip.

The Trail Blazers are just 10-25 on the season, but 16-19 against the spread, meaning they’ve lost some closer games. However, that hasn’t been the case as much lately. Since its epic home win against the Suns on Dec. 19, Portland is just 3-6 ATS, and all of those covers have been outright wins — meaning they’re either winning or they’re losing by margin. In that span, the Blazers have the 11th-worst spread differential (-4.5), per Cleaning the Glass, and the third-worst point differential (-11.8). Only the depleted Hornets (-14) and the woeful Wizards (-15) have been worse.

The issue has been on both sides of the ball for Portland, but the defense in particular has been rough. The only plus-defenders for the Blazers, according to Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus (DPM), are Toumani Camara (+1.3) and Thybulle (+.9).

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On the other hand, the Knicks have played great defensively, especially since trading for Anunoby and company. A lot has been made about the on/off splits for Anunoby since arriving in New York, and for good reason. He’s responsible for a -38.6 drop in opponent Offensive Rating since becoming a Knick, but it should be taken with a grain of salt. While New York has played some good teams during its win streak with Anunoby, the 76ers are the only offense that ranks inside the top 17.

An under-appreciated aspect of the Knicks' recent success is the defensive impact of big man Isaiah Hartenstein, who’s taken over the starting center responsibilities with Mitchell Robinson out for the remainder of the season. Hartenstein leads the league in DPM (+4.6) by a pretty significant margin. The next closest player in that metric is Xavier Tillman at +3.8 and Hartenstein is more than a point ahead of Defensive Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player candidate Joel Embiid (+3.5).

While the Knicks' offensive competition has been lackluster since the trade, other than the Wizards, the defenses New York has faced have all been either above average or elite. They beat the Timberwolves (first), 76ers (fourth) and Bulls (15th), clocking the best Net Rating (+17.7) thanks to a 120.8 Offensive Rating, 119.3 points per game and 39.6% shooting from beyond the arc.

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I like the Knicks in this spot with the Trail Blazers in the middle of a lengthy road trip. It’s a big spread, which Portland has done well against this season (6-2 ATS with spreads of 10 or more), but New York is one of the best ATS teams against the bottom of the barrel.

This season, the Knicks are 8-3 ATS against teams with a winning percentage below 40 percent, and they are 38-27-1 under Tom Thibodeau, according to BetLabs. I bet the Knicks at -11.5, but I expect a blowout and see value down to -13.

Pick: Knicks -11.5