The New York Knicks haven't been to the NBA Finals in more than 25 years, but a road victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night would finally get them back. They can finish off the sweep in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, and they come in on a 10-game win streak. They won three in a row to beat the Atlanta Hawks in six games, then swept the 76ers and are rolling against the Cavs. They have won the past seven games by an average of more than 18 points. The winner of this series will face the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals, and that series is tied 2-2.
The Knicks are looking for their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, when they lost to the Spurs in five games. They fell just short last season, but FanDuel Sportsbook has New York favored by 2.5 points to complete the sweep in its Knicks vs. Cavs odds. The Over/Under for total points scored is set at 218.5. Some players are tired and banged up after playing so many games, including Cleveland star Donovan Mitchell, but neither team has any players on the official injury report.
With New York looking to close it out and the Cavs in desperation mode, we have taken a close look at the Knicks vs. Cavaliers odds from FanDuel to unearth the best bets for Monday's Game 4. We have found the top plays using information from the SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every NBA game 10,000 times. The model has returned well over $10,000 in betting profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past eight-plus seasons.
The model entered the second week of the conference finals of the 2026 NBA playoffs on a sizzling 26-10 roll (72%) on top-rated NBA spread picks this season. Anyone following its NBA betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns.
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NBA Playoffs picks, best bets for Monday, May 25
- Knicks money line
- Over 218.5
- Karl-Anthony Towns Over 16.5 points
Knicks money line
New York has been dominant throughout the playoffs, aside from two one-point losses to Atlanta in the first round, and there's no reason to expect the Cavs to come back. They are playing at home, so they could steal a game, but the SportsLine model isn't expecting that. It has the Knicks winning in 60% of its simulations and covering the point spread 57% of the time. New York is scoring 10.4 more points per game than the Cavs (119.2-108.8) in the postseason and yielding almost nine fewer points (101.2-109.9). The Knicks lead the league in both scoring offense and defense in the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
Over 218.5
The Knicks are averaging more than 119 points per game and Cleveland is averaging just shy of 109. The Cavs haven't been shooting well in the series, but they did take a 22-point lead before blowing it in Game 1. Sitting on the brink of elimination and playing at home, they will be motivated and desperate so if they can get some shots to fall, this could be a high-scoring game. The SportsLine Projection Model believes it will be, as Over 218.5 hits in 58.1% of simulations. Cleveland is 51-48 to the Over this season and New York is 45-51, and the total has gone Over in five of the Cavs' past six home games.
Karl-Anthony Towns Over 16.5 points
Towns is averaging 16.8 points in the playoffs after scoring 20.1 per contest in the regular season. He has topped this number in half of the postseason games, and he should have a little extra juice with the series sweep and some time to rest on the line. The big man doesn't take a ton of shots, so it's just a matter of whether he makes them. He shot better than 50% from the field in seven of the eight games where he topped this number. He also went Over this number in three of four games against Philly despite playing less than 30 minutes in all of them. The props model projects Towns for 19.9 points in Game 4.
