The marquee games every Thursday in the NBA regular season are usually part of the TNT doubleheader, and there are two good ones this week. However, we are going to begin with a look at the New York Knicks as 6-point underdogs against the Washington Wizards. Two bad teams, what’s the big deal?

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Well, it’s a rare Thursday matinee (3pm ET) because it’s being played in London. The Knicks won’t have one of their better players because of that in Turkish center Enes Kanter. He has been a very outspoken critic of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Kanter says he fears he will be assassinated should he make the trip overseas – so he won’t.

Kanter can’t play defense worth a lick but is a double-double machine in points and rebounds so that weakens New York for this game. The Knicks are 0-2 against the Wizards this season, with Kanter averaging 15.5 points and 14.0 rebounds in those two contests. Washington has covered nine of the past 11 in this series.