The slumping New York Knicks get an ideal get right spot on Wednesday night, as the woeful Brooklyn Nets make the short trip across the bridge to Madison Square Garden, with early NBA odds reflecting a sizeable gap between these two teams.
Even as the Knicks slump through the early part of the calendar year, with two wins in their last nine games, they remain among the top spots in the weakened Eastern Conference. But, with title aspirations hung onto a high-priced roster, good isn’t good enough in New York—these Knicks need to get back on track.
Brooklyn, meanwhile, is doing exactly what was expected this season—very little. The Nets remain firmly in a rebuild, and with youth the lone priority on that side of New York, moves to dispatch productive veterans loom. First, however, is a clash with their cross-town big brothers.
With a Brooklyn Bridge battle on the slate this Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, check out our New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets predictions, including our NBA expert picks, with tip set for January 21 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Matchup New York Knicks vs Brooklyn Nets Overview
Teams: New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Win Probabilities
The NBA win probabilities have been generated using insights from recent NBA games, along with expert NBA picks and predictions. The New York Knicks have been given a 87.5% chance to win this NBA game. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets have a 12.5% chance according to the NBA’s key basketball odds.
Projected Final Score
The projected final score anticipates a close game in the Empire State, but for the New York Knicks to prevail with a final score of New York Knicks 122-100 Brooklyn Nets.
Expert Prediction: Who Wins?
Why the New York Knicks Can Cover
From the moment the New York Knicks acquired All-NBA center Karl-Anthony Towns and paired the dead-eye shooting big with the crafty Jalen Brunson, they’ve been able to enjoy an elite offense. Even last season, under an old-school and defensively obsessed head coach in Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks finished the season with an offense in the top five in offensive rating.
This season, despite concerns around the team and a slow mesh with new head coach Mike Brown’s system, New York has sustained that offensive brilliance. It is third in the league in offensive rating and remains so when adjusted for opponent. It’s the lifeblood of the team’s success, and this year, the Knicks have enjoyed a new wrinkle.
Limited to just 17 games last year, the health of Mitchell Robinson has made the Knicks’ offensive efficiency even greater. Robinson has emerged as the league’s most threatening force on the offensive glass, routinely providing his team with extra possessions. At 4.8 offensive rebounds per game, Robinson is enjoying a career year on the glass on that end of the floor, and it has had a ripple effect on the team.
The Knicks are third in the league in offensive rebounding rate, retaining possession on 30.5% of their missed shots—only behind two similarly jumbo-sized teams in the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons. This is particularly bad news for a Brooklyn Nets team that is undersized and weighed down by youth. The Nets currently rank 24th in opponent offensive rebounding rate, with foes retaining possession on 27.1% of their misses.
Bottomline for the Knicks
Already, the Knicks’ best route to victory comes in an elite offense that proves difficult to keep pace with. For a Nets team low on contributors, keeping pace with New York already presented a brutal challenge.
With the added wrinkle of slowing Robinson, Towns, and the Knicks on the glass, Brooklyn will be lagging behind on possessions and, as a result, the scoreboard, too.
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Why the Brooklyn Nets Can Cover
As one of the league’s youngest and most talent-poor teams, the Brooklyn Nets need to do all they can to close the talent gap that exists in most matchups for them. Under a brilliant head coach in Jordi Fernandez, that has meant a focus on three-point shooting, in an attempt to close the talent gap through an efficient shot diet.
On the season, just the Golden State Warriors take a higher rate of their total shots from distance than the Nets, with 48.0% of the Nets’ total shots coming from deep.
Unfortunately—and a major reason the Nets are 26th in offensive rating, despite an efficient offensive approach—they haven’t been a particularly good three-point shooting team. Brooklyn is 24th in the league in team three-point percentage, connecting on just 34.4% of its attempts from distance.
The efficiency simply hasn’t lined up with the volume. Though the Nets have seven players in their rotation taking three or more shots from deep per game this year, led by Michael Porter Jr.’s 9.5 attempts per game, they have only two players making 36% or better—Porter Jr. at 40% and rookie Egor Demin at 39%.
Life in the 2025/26 season for the Nets means living and dying by the three, and it’s no surprise they sit at 11-27 with the quality—or lack thereof—of their shooters. But they have a decent chance at living, or at least surviving, by the three against the Knicks.
With New York’s bigger-sized rotation and focus on rebounding on both ends, opponents have been able to get shots off from distance against it. Only three teams allow more shots from three-point range than the Knicks this year, with foes taking 44.8% of their total shots from deep against them.
Plus, between the volume conceded and slow-footed defenders not getting out to close shooters down in a hurry, opponents have had good shooting nights against them, too. The Knicks are in the bottom five in opponent three-point percentage, allowing opponents to make 37.3% of their threes.
Bottomline for the Nets
With two certainties on Wednesday night—the Nets will take a ton of their shots from deep, and the Knicks will let them—a wide-open path to covering is there for Brooklyn.
With just an above average night in three-point shooting efficiency, it can keep things close at Madison Square Garden.
Current New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets Odds
| Team | Moneyline | Spread | Total |
| New York Knicks | -456 | -12.5 | 228.5 |
| Brooklyn Nets | +317 | +12.5 ( underdog ) | 228.5 |
How to Make New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets Picks
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