When discussing shots from beyond the arc, New York made 10 of 27 tries (%). When the final whistle blew, the Liberty shot 34 for 72 from. Sparks and Minnesota Lynx went the distance and alternated in taking home the trophy. This season, the Liberty beat the Aces in the. Spread: Sparks () to Cover · The model favors the Liberty by points, just liberty sparks prediction than the point spread set by DraftKings. · The. The flip side of that is the Sparks struggle to defend 2-pointers, which the Liberty take the fewest of. The other area the Sparks struggle in.
They moved from San Antonio to the Strip in , and they are appearing in the Finals for the third time. New York, on the other hand, is the only still-existing original WNBA franchise that has not won a title. While the Liberty players -- none of whom has been with the team since before -- might not really feel that historical weight, the longtime Liberty fans do.
So which superteam will be the champion. Voepel: Stewart's shooting woes have been a surprise. She was at In the Liberty's six playoff games, those percentages have dropped to Of course, if she got a lot of her misses out of the way before the Finals, that's good news for the Liberty. Philippou: Having covered the Liberty-Sun series in person, New York seemed to develop grit in real time to overcome a deficit versus an uber-tough Connecticut squad and win three straight games, including two at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Different people stepped up in different moments for the Liberty, but for the most part, they stayed poised to close out such a competitive series in four games. I am surprised the Liberty's bench hasn't seen more minutes in the playoffs, since their depth seemed to be an advantage when considering New York as a contender earlier this season.
Does that change against the Aces. Kayla Thornton 's toughness and energy can turn around a game, as can Marine Johannes ' shooting, and Stefanie Dolson adds post depth against a team that doesn't have a ton of it. Johannes had a stellar outing versus the Aces in the Commissioner's Cup championship, but she has played only 42 minutes this postseason.
Pelton: In addition to seconding what Alexa said, I agree Stewart's postseason slump has been a surprise. When the Seattle Storm lost to Las Vegas in last year's semifinals, it was the first time a healthy Stewart had been knocked out of the playoffs since And even then, Stewart set a playoff record with 42 points in the final game of a hard-fought series.
Going back to UConn , and including EuroLeague competition, Stewart has almost always been at her best when the stakes are the highest. They don't come much higher than in this series. Philippou: Yes, the Finals are a whole new series, but those games -- particularly the August ones -- showed us a lot about how these teams match up.
That said, I expect Wilson to play closer to how she did Aug. The Liberty have excellent defenders in Stewart and Jonquel Jones , but they'll still have their hands full trying to slow down Wilson. Voepel: The Aces' victory over the Liberty on June 29 doesn't have much bearing on this series, as Candace Parker was still playing for the Aces, and Jones wasn't quite in the playing form she is now.
The other four matchups, all in August, are likely indicative of what we will see in the Finals. Those will be games the Aces will review in preparation because they were far from their best in both. Liberty sparks prediction Pelton: It's interesting that head-to-head results haven't been particularly predictive of Finals results. Since the WNBA went to a single playoff table in , and not including the shortened Wubble season, teams that won the regular-season series have gone just in the Finals.
And both of those winners, the Storm and last year's Aces, also had home-court advantage in the Finals. However, we've never seen teams play each other this often before the Finals. All of those previous head-to-head series were three games rather than the five times Las Vegas and New York have already met this year.
Pelton: Given the firepower on both sides, I think it's more about which team can consistently get stops. New York was in the regular season and so far in the playoffs when holding opponents to 95 points per possessions or fewer. One of those games was the Aug. Philippou: Defensively, for the reasons Pelton stated, but also because if you ask both Hammon and Brondello, they'd say defense wins championships.
Not just by the pure nature of getting stops and keeping an opponent off the scoreboard, but for these two teams in particular, defense and defensive rebounding fuels offense on the other end, especially in transition. The Aces have had the best defensive rating in both the regular season and playoffs, but they allowed the Liberty to score at least 80 points in all of their previous meetings except one -- Aug.
The Aces' Jackie Young is one of the league's best defensive guards and at 6 feet tall actually can take on just about anyone. Sixth Player of the Year Alysha Clark is also a versatile defender. It makes sense to say defense will prevail in this series, for all the reasons Alexa and Kevin point out.
Still, let's add this: The Aces can be like a runaway train on offense, and that can take over games. The Aces won playoff games scoring 97 points and 64 points, which shows how effective they can be on both ends of the court. Philippou: Jones' emergence into her MVP-level self is arguably the single biggest development that has catapulted this Liberty team into a contender.
In the postseason, she has had six double-doubles in as many games; and in the second half alone of Game 4 in the semifinals, Jones came up with 20 points and eight rebounds. Going up against the Mystics' and Sun's frontcourts is different than facing that of the Aces' especially with Wilson being unstoppable as of late. Another X factor is Liberty forward Betnijah Laney , who has scored at least 19 points in all but one of New York's postseason games and will be critical to helping contain the Aces' high-powered guards.
Voepel: Jones is the biggest X factor overall in the series. Plum averaged 2. Plum, Young and Chelsea Gray all can do damage from long range, but if Plum gets in a groove, it makes Las Vegas' offense all the harder to stop. Sparks loses by There will be more than points in the game. There will be more than New York Liberty will score more than 87 in the game.
The bonus amount must be rolled over 5 times in accumulator bets. Each accumulator bet must contain 3 events or more. At least 3 events within the accumulator must have odds of 1. The bonus must be used within 30 days of registration. If the bonus is credited to the bonus account for sports betting, the wagering requirement will be 5x the bonus amount in accumulator bets. Each accumulator bet must contain at least three selections.
At least three selections in each accumulator must have odds of 1. Must be rolled over 5 times in accumulator bets. After the bonus has been redeemed, your main account will be credited with the remaining bonus funds, which will not exceed the total bonus amount. New York Liberty 96 : 89 L.
Sparks 69 : 76 New York Liberty. Sparks 79 : 87 New York Liberty. New York Liberty 64 : 61 L. New York Liberty : 73 L. Sparks 84 : 74 New York Liberty. Indiana Fever. New York Liberty. Washington Mystics. Seattle Storm 89 : 91 L.