Raise your hand if you had the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty being a combined 4-8 after the first full week in June. Yeah, put your hand down you liar. It’s been an interesting season to say the least over the first few weeks and that is reflected in team’s performances in relation to the spreads.
While wins and losses are obviously what the teams are concerned about, if you are putting any money down on these games, the spread info is what you need. With the season roughly a quarter of the way through, here is an update on how teams are performing against the spread.
Favorites not taking care of business
While being declared the favorite by Vegas is nice, it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t win by as much as you’re suppose to. Take the Lynx for example: in their seven games this season, they were the favorite in six of them. Their record in terms of covering as a favorite? 0-6. In fact, Minnesota has yet to cover in any game so far this season so not only are their fans concerned, so is anyone backing them with their wallets. As of today, here is how the teams stack up as a favorite (reminder that these are their records in terms of covering the spread. It has nothing to do with if they won or lost the game):
Connecticut: 4-2
Los Angles: 3-0
Dallas: 2-0
New York: 2-2
Seattle: 2-3
Atlanta: 1-2
Phoenix: 1-2
Washington: 1-3
Chicago: 0-0-1 (a push with Vegas)
Indiana: 0-1
Minnesota: 0-6
Las Vegas: N/A
Favorites combined record: 16-21-1
Underdogs the smart play thus far
From the above information you obviously can see that the underdogs have been the smart money so far. We’ve especially seen teams that would be considered among the five or six best teams in the league (like Phoenix and Washington) being excellent picks when they are given points. The Mercury are 4-1 as underdogs while the Mystics are a comparable 3-1. Here are how teams have performed when being the underdog:
Phoenix: 4-1
Washington: 3-1
Chicago: 3-2
Atlanta: 2-1
Dallas: 2-2
Indiana: 2-3
Las Vegas: 2-3-1
New York: 1-0
Los Angles: 1-1
Seattle: 1-1
Minnesota: 0-1
Connecticut: N/A
Underdogs combined record: 21-16-1
Trends of note
In addition to just covering, it’s important to know the point range of the games that team’s are covering. So, to that point, I’ve tracked every team in how they have done as both a favorite and a underdog in the following ranges: 5 points or less, 5.5-9.5 and 10 or more. While I could write out how every team has done in those categories, it’s still a bit early as many team’s are around .500. The teams that aren’t, however, are noted below.
-Los Angles is 3-0 when they are a favorite by 5.5-9.5 points
-Phoenix is 3-0 when they are an underdog by 5 points or less
-Atlanta is 2-0 when they are an underdog by 5.5-9.5 points
-Dallas is 2-0 when they are a favorite by 5 points or less (the only two games they have been favorited in so far this season)
Many of these trends will flip on their heads as the season progresses but are all worth keeping an eye on (and considering) when placing bets on the WNBA.