The WNBA schedulemakers are at it as usual. Six teams are playing a back-to-back, while two have not begun.
Chicago at New York
It’s amusing to compare the centers’ — S. Fowles and T. Charles — lines from Saturday’s win by the Sun. Charles shot one more field goal, grabbed one more rebound, made one more steal, committed one fewer foul, scored one more point. Charles was +15, Fowles -15.
Fowles’ 16 pts, 9 reb, 6-of-12 fg is the only line in the Chicago box that doesn’t stink. Prince had five steals and six turnovers. When Kraayeveld shot 3-of-4 inside the arc in their exhibition game, I thought ‘hey, maybe she’s on to something’. Saturday she was 3-for-3 in, 0-of-4 out. Pay attention, Cat.
I think the Liberty might be much improved, but I won’t be surprised if both of these teams continue their ups and downs from last season. Wasn’t easy to place a wager then, and I don’t think I’d touch this game no matter which lines come out.
I figure something like New York -2 with a 138 total.
Washington at Minnesota
It was fashionable last year to say that Minnesota would rise to the top of the West as early as 2010. At Tulsa Saturday, the Lynx had five in double figure scoring, five with at least five rebounds, four with three steals or more, and two stars on the bench.
I’m not putting much into Washington’s road win. Didn’t Indiana start last year like this? Two surprising losses, and then they didn’t lose again until the end of August? Mystics aren’t going to outrebound the Lynx 35-22 or shoot 50 percent in two straight on the road, surely. Sheesh, they made 24 turnovers while winning an away game.
Minnesota minus as much as 6, I figure. Total around 150.
Indiana at Atlanta
The Millers are going to make matching billions at least once this season.
According to the boxscore, Atlanta didn’t do anything special in a road win at San Antonio. The Dream shot and rebounded a little better; surprise, that wins again. I thought Atlanta might be out of sorts, considering the recent drama, but it looks like the Stars were the unstable bunch. Two rebounds by Young? Seven turnovers by Wade.
The leading defensive rebounder for Indiana Saturday had two. That’s just weird. The rebounding totals might be the first thing I look at Sunday.
Atlanta -2 or so, 145 total.
Los Angeles at Seattle
This was a marquee matchup for years. Now they’re a couple of old teams.
Seattle’s got four players with eight or nine years of experience — the weird thing is that it’s like a youth movement; two seasons ago, the Storm looked like an exhibition team of legends.
This year it’s the Sparks who remind me of that astronaut movie where 85-year-old Tommy Lee Jones is the kid. The Sparks have five players born in the ’70s. They are all younger than Steve Nash.
I was rooting for that Storm team two years back to go deep into the playoffs, but one or two of the parts rusted out, and they also ran out of gas. It would be logical — and a little unnerving — for Seattle to go one round deeper than Los Angeles this year, when that could easily mean LA not getting in and Seattle out in one. (Let’s say Phoenix and Minnesota in the West. If you think Indiana is fried, then you might also think there isn’t one outstanding team in the East.)
Um, Seattle is likely to be -4, while the total ought to be the highest of the day. The total will be, um, 158.
NYL -6.5 CHI 148
6.5?! That’s the book’s assessment of Chicago after looking like crap yesterday, and then playing back-to-back on the road. It might also be a sign that the book thinks the Liberty might be much better. This game’s not safe to touch. Pass.
MIN -4 WAS 155
I said -6 and 150, therefore pass.
ATL 0 IND 156.5
I said Dream -2 and 145. Y’know, their line makes more sense than my estimate from hours ago. The book seems to look ahead to some combination of Atlanta putting points on the board (higher total) and the Fever waking up (lower spread), but I’ll wager that those reasonable forecasts will be muddied by both teams playing Saturday.
Pick: Under
SEA -5 LAS 142
I said -4 and 158. They don’t agree that the teams will be getting up and down.
Pick: Over
5/15 2-1
Season: 2-1
