Chicago Sky (+8, -110)
New York Liberty (-8, -110)
Total: 162
Trivia question: who has the second longest active winning streak in the WNBA? If you said Chicago, you’re right (you also cheated and looked it up, don’t lie to me). After demolishing the Minnesota Lynx 100-76, many wrote that game up to being an aberration and, to be fair, it was. However, the Sky then proceeded to take down the Wings by a score of 90-84 showing that perhaps they are capable of competing night in and night out.
Interestingly enough, both wins came despite the absence of Cappie Pondexter who is in concussion protocol. In the win over Minnesota, Courtney Vandersloot poured in 26 points while dishing out 13 assists, then kept things going against Dallas by putting up 13 and 11. During their modest winning streak, Chicago has a fantastic 58.9% rebounding percentage, an effective field goal percentage of 63.8 (!) and a true shooting percentage of 64.2 (!!) Those numbers are not sustainable, but the Sky have shown what they are capable of when they share the ball and keep it moving.
Losing four of their last five games, the Liberty find themselves in a bit of a rut. To be fair, three of those losses were to teams at the top of the league in Washington, Connecticut and Phoenix, but for a team who liken themselves to those teams, the losses still hurt.
A quick look at the numbers tell you all that you need to know about the struggles of New York. During the past five games, the Liberty have a true shooting percentage of 43.9 (last in the league), an effective field goal percentage of 40.1 (last) and an offensive rating of 85.9 (yep, you guessed it, last). Tina Charles is her usual superwoman self, but the rest of the team needs to find themselves soon. That is especially true for Shavonte Zellous who has failed to reach double digit scoring in the past three games.
Strange as it is to say for a team who is missing one of the all-time scorers that the league has seen, but the Sky have looked better during Pondexter’s absence. With her out again tonight, I would expect to see the excellent team play of Chicago to continue. While I think New York will win, I’ll take the Sky +8 and the over.