The Money Line: WNBA odds, predictions for Thursday June 29
Seattle Storm (+4, -110)
Connecticut Sun (-4, -110)
Total: 161
Is anybody going to ask the awkward question that is staring us all in the face? Anyone? Okay, I will: why are the Storm struggling right now?
After blasting off to start the season, Seattle has fallen back to Earth hard and fast. Losers of two straight and five of their last six, the Storm have some serious issues that they need to fix. Sure, some of the problems during the Washington game can be chalked up to the travel and game time; it was the first game of the Storm’s east coast swing and tipoff was at 9AM west coast time.
Regardless, it was a bit shocking to see the trio of Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart score a combined 23 points on 10-of-27 shooting to go along with 10 turnovers. Surprisingly, Seattle ranks poorly in a lot of areas that you wouldn’t immediately think that they would. Middle of the road offensively, Seattle ranks third to last in defensive rating, fourth to last in rebounding percentage and third to last in turnover percentage. The good news is that they are second in both effective field goal and true shooting percentages, but you would certainly like to see this team shore it up on both ends. I still believe this team can turn into one of the more dangerous squads come playoff time, but it is impossible to keep ignoring the red flags.
The red-hot Sun simply ran into a hotter Sparks team last time they took the floor in 87-79 loss at home. Jonquel Jones recorded her seventh double double as the second year player will surely make the All-Star game, while Jasmine Thomas scored 19 and continues to prove herself to be a serious scoring threat.
The Sun, while playing well, are another team that the advanced stats show have some issues to shore up. While ranked sixth defensively, Connecticut allows the third highest true shooting percentage to opponents and are only ranked eighth in that same department.
The good news is that the young Sun squad have the fourth lowest turnover percentage in the league and, subsequently, have the fourth best assist-to-turnover ratio. While they are still subject to some ebb and flow type play, it appears that Connecticut believes they can compete which could go a long way.
Going off of my tone for each team, it would seem likely that I would go with Connecticut here, but for some reason I feel like Seattle is due for a bounce back. This could result in this blowing up in my face, but I’m going to take the Storm and the over.