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LeBron James will not be inside Madison Square Garden tonight when the Los Angeles Lakers make their annual visit to Manhattan to play the New York Knicks. He has been suspended for his altercation with Isaiah Stewart of the Pistons, and he will be forced to watch tonight’s game from somewhere other than the arena.

Where that might be is anybody’s guess, and it is a shame we cannot wager on it. The folks at TMZ Sports probably have in-house action on it, with “fancy restaurant” a slight favorite over “back at the team hotel.”

The NBA’s glamour franchise has not been all that glamorous this season, with James missing 10 of 18 games and the team going 9-9 out of the gate, part of the reason why Frank Vogel is currently +3000 to win Coach of the Year. The Lakers are 3.5-point underdogs against the Knicks in the first half of tonight’s TNT doubleheader, with the Denver Nuggets facing the Portland Trail Blazers in the nightcap with defending MVP Nikola Jokic listed as questionable due to a sprained wrist.

This is stop No. 4 on a five-game Eastern Conference road trip for the Lakers, who remain one of the favorites in the NBA title odds despite the so-so start. The Lakers and Warriors are both +700 to win the championship, while the Phoenix Suns are getting little respect despite their current 13-game winning streak, listed at +1500.

We are not yet a quarter of the way through the NBA season, and it bears mentioning that games that take place in late November are long forgotten by the time the playoffs roll around… usually. Stewart, who kept charging after James on Sunday night in Detroit, is the exception to that rule. But you know what we mean. (Detroit plays in L.A. next Sunday night, so we do not have to wait all that long for the Stewart vs. James rematch.)

The Knicks are at full strength tonight and have had this one circled on their calendar for a long time because it is one of the few nights this season when they will be playing on national TV. James’ annual trip to MSG is always an event, and ‘Bockers fans will have to take solace in the fact that he will be back again a year from now when the pandemic is finally (hopefully) in New Yorkers’ rear-view mirror.

This is a big week for Tom Thibodeau’s team from a self-assessment standpoint, with Chris Paul and the Suns coming to town Friday night before they play the following night against the Atlanta Hawks, who knocked them out of the postseason last spring when Trae Young took a bow (because that is what performers do when they kill it in New York.)

Julius Randle is coming off a 34-point performance against the Bulls, but no other Knicks starter was in double figures in that 109-103 loss Sunday night. Offseason acquisition Evan Fournier has been in single digits in five of the past six games and has missed 41 of 56 3-point attempts this month, and fellow signee Kemba Walker is in a rut, too, having failed to reach double figures in three straight games. RJ Barrett grabbed 15 rebounds last time out while playing 33 minutes, so it is not all that much of a reach to expect that he can break out of his shooting slump for at least one night and post a double-double, which is nicely priced at +800.

In the nightcap, expect to see Damian Lillard firing away from 3-point range after he attempted 13 in the Blazers’ last game and made five of them en route to a 39-point performance against Philadelphia. His 3-pointers made over-under is 3.5, while C.J. McCollum’s is 2.5. We like the latter “over” because McCollum has hit at least three 3s in three of his past four games, and he is firing them up at a high frequency. Another wager to target is Robert Covington’s blocks, which has been set at 0.5. He has eight of them in his past three games, so that may be the best individual prop bet out there tonight. Covington also has eight assists in his last three games, and his assist over-under seems low at 1.5.

It is worth noting that the Lakers, at 6-12-0, have the worst against-the-spread record in the entire NBA and the best over-under record in The Association at 11-7-0. The second-best over/under record (10-7-0) belongs to the Miami Heat, who are 10-point favorites on the road against Detroit with an over/under of 208, which is a tricky one to forecast because the Pistons had been prone to low-scoring games earlier this season and will be facing the team with the East’s best point differential (+7.4) and top-ranked defense in terms of points allowed (102.4).

The night’s fourth game is Dallas visiting the Los Angeles Clippers, who are five-point favorites and have to be considered the West’s biggest surprise team with a record of 10-7 despite the absence of Kawhi Leonard. Ty Lue is currently 25-1 for Coach of the Year, which is not giving him enough credit for what the Clips are accomplishing. We should note that Monty Williams of Phoenix is 10-1, which seems as though it will go a lot lower if the Suns’ winning streak grows a lot longer. As it is, 13 in a row is four wins shy of the franchise record set a decade and a half ago.

In the Miami-Detroit game, Jimmy Butler’s point total (22.5) seems low as he is coming off games of 31, 32 and 29. Same with the point total for Detroit’s Jerami Grant (18.5), as he comes off a 36-point outing on fight night vs. the Lakers on Sunday.

All in all, a good night to watch games on TV, which is what James is going to be doing somewhere in New York. Good luck!

BEST BETS

R.J. Barrett double-double (+800)

C.J. McCollum over 2.5 3-pointers (-160)

Robert Covington over 0.5 blocks (-235)

Robert Covington over 1.5 assists (-195)

Jimmy Butler over 22.5 points (-120)