I missed on my last WNBA play, but that won’t stop me from firing away when I see a good one available to us. Baseball has been fun to bet on, but with the NHL and NBA stopping, that will be the main focus until August so I am trying to vary it up a bit and see if we can get some scores in other places. I’ve locked my sights in on the game between the Liberty and the Dream.
The New York Liberty should be one of, if not the, best teams in all of women’s basketball. They have one of the best players in the world in Breanna Stewart. They have a sharpshooter, who probably would’ve been Caitlin Clark with a better marketing team, in Sabrina Ionescu. Also on the roster is Jonquel Jones, a very talented scorer and champion. That trio should lead them to victory just about any night they take the court together.
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Part of the problem is that they’ve had only one game this season in which Ionescu was even available. She played 31 minutes against Dallas and has been out ever since. The team is still 8-4 without her regularly available, and they’ve won their past five games. I won’t lie, it wasn’t the toughest schedule in the world, but it wasn’t a cakewalk. The WNBA has a lot of parity in it this year.
The Atlanta Dream have turned their team around significantly in the past couple of seasons. They made the playoffs two years ago, but they were 15-25. Last year they were 30-14 and made the postseason before losing to the Fever. This season they are 8-3 and look like they should be among a true handful that can compete to win the championship.
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The Dream have four women who average at least 10 points per game. That’s not something many WNBA teams can boast. They are not overly deep outside of those four, and that could come back to bite them if they make it far enough into the playoffs. Their big addition, Angel Reese, has been racking up double-doubles and has 12.2 rebounds per game. Before you say it is because she just grabs her own misses, watch a game. She hustles, and she isn’t overly gifted on offense, but she does track down rebounds well. In the last two games, she has grabbed 34 rebounds on 9-of-21 shooting. She leads the league in rebounds and double-doubles.
If you want me to bash Reese a little bit, here it is. She also is second in turnovers in the league, behind only one person… Caitlin Clark. The major difference is that Clark is facilitating the offense and really does take some shots that look like good ideas and just don’t work out. Reese does not have that role.
This isn’t intended to be a Reese vs. Clark article, so let’s get back to this game between the Dream and Liberty. I like the way New York is playing and the biggest advantage the Dream have is their interior presence. I think that gets neutralized here. Give me the Liberty to win the game. If you want to take the 1.5 points, no problem, but I expect New York to win it.
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