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Best Bet: NYK – 4.5 (-112) at DraftKings
Best Bet: O232.5 (-115)
Score Prediction: Knicks 119, 76ers 114
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Up to $1,500 in Bonus Bets if Your First Bet Doesn't Win*
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The Pick: Knicks 119, 76ers 114
We’ll take the Knicks’ ATS market based on head-to-head data along with games vs the East, although the Sixers’ new roster should be accounted for.
Game Betting Analysis
The data points to New York, but the new identity of Philadelphia is something worth noting and something the data won’t account for. Let’s start there, though, as the Knicks have won six straight games against the Sixers, covering five of those six as well – four of those five as favorites. New York has also covered the spread in six straight games when facing the Eastern Conference and won outright in its last 13 divisional games. However, the Sixers are loaded now – so if afraid of that then try the Over instead. The Over has hit in four straight season opening games for Philadelphia, while also hitting in three of five meetings.
76ers-Knicks Odds (Spread, Moneyline, Over/Under)
Deciding Factor: Philadelphia’s Star-Studded Shot-Creation Logjam vs. New York’s Proven Chemistry
Philadelphia opens the season with the most talented, and most untested, roster of the Joel Embiid era. LeBron James, 41 years old and fresh off averaging 23.2 points, 7.3 assists and 6.7 rebounds over 60 games with the Lakers last season, signed a two-year deal to pair with 2024 Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, acquired in the trade that sent Paul George to Boston and who exploded for 22 points in just 17 minutes in his preseason debut. Add All-NBA guard Tyrese Maxey (28.3 points per game) and third-place Rookie of the Year finisher VJ Edgecombe, and ESPN’s Dean Oliver has tagged the group’s five primary options a combined 134% career usage rate worth of “super users” that new coach Nick Nurse must now divide up on the fly. Embiid himself carries no injury designation for Tuesday, but he’s played just 45 of a possible 94 games over the last year and only 96 total across the last three seasons, while Anfernee Simons (left hamstring) is questionable after missing the entire preseason. If Philadelphia’s shot creators find rhythm in their first real test together and Embiid holds up physically, this is a roster capable of simply overwhelming a defending champion on opening night.
New York, meanwhile, needs no such experimentation, it’s running back the group that just delivered the franchise’s first championship since 1973, beating San Antonio in five games behind Finals MVP Jalen Brunson’s 45-point closeout in Game 5. Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart are all back, with Hart trending toward available despite a lingering ankle issue, and the lone subtraction up front, Mitchell Robinson’s departure to Boston, replaced on the depth chart by veteran addition Andre Drummond. The Towns-Embiid chess match inside, pulling Philadelphia’s center away from the rim or conceding Philadelphia in the paint, looms as the swing point, and if New York’s continuity and familiarity with each other outlast Philadelphia’s superior individual talent in Year One of its new-look build, the champions raise their banner and take care of business at home in the same night.
Game Information
- Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026
- Kickoff: 7:00 p.m. (ET)
- Network: NBC, Peacock
- Location: New York, New York
- Venue: Madison Square Garden – 226 ppg; 23-25-1 O/U
Key Players
Philadelphia 76ers
- LeBron James — Last Game: n/a
- Tyrese Maxey — Last Game: n/a
New York Knicks
- Jalen Brunson — Last Game: n/a
- Karl Anthony Towns — Last Game: n/a
Photo Credit: REUTERS
