NY at Indiana WNBA Prediction
Saturday, May 24th at 1 PM, EST
The season is only one week old; most teams have only played two games thus far, but this week’s New York Liberty and Indiana Fever game is already being billed as a Game of the Year.
Hyperbole?
Sure, but it should be a game worth watching, especially if you have money on it (of course, if you didn’t have money on it, you wouldn’t be watching in the first place, eh?)
The 2-0 first-place Liberty travel to Indiana to take on the 2-1 second-place Fever at 12:00 p.m. EST in a game that will be nationally televised on CBS. And on the topic of TV, the WNBA is pleased to announce there will be increased televised coverage of its product this year.
Disney networks (including ESPN and ABC), NBC, ION and Prime are all increasing the number of games they are showing this season.
And CBS is going to broadcast the first primetime regular season game in WNBA history.
The league is 29 years old but there has never been a regular season game in prime time on national TV. Now, after 29 years, they just happen to have their first.
I wonder why that is.
No, I don’t.
But I digress.
Back to the game.
NOT.
Did I mention WHICH team will be featured in the historical first-ever Prime Time telecast?
Do you want to GUESS which team?
In fact, there will be TWO Prime Time games televised this season.
Guess which team is in BOTH of them.
Is it the defending champion, New York Liberty?
Two-time champion Las Vegas Aces?
You don’t have to guess. You know.
Everybody knows.
So it’s kind of strange that at the league’s official website the entire article boasting about the increased popularity and television coverage fails to even speculate as to what the leading factor for this might be.
Actually, if you’ve been following along, it’s not strange at all. It’s all part of their continuing effort to kill the Golden Goose that got them here.
Be careful not to mention “she’s” the reason; don’t mention her by name, or the haters will attack you for telling the truth.
Caitlin.
Caitlin Caitlin Caitlin.
Rant over.
Now, I’ll get back to my game pick and analysis.
I’m playing a side in this one, but in case anyone’s looking at totals, here’s an FYI – four of the five games these two have played this year have gone Over.
Both offenses are in high gear; they’re the number one (NY) and number three (Ind) top-scoring offenses in the league.
Let’s look at both teams W/L’s.
Indiana is 2-1.
They played a mediocre Atlanta team twice. They lost to the Dream at home in Indiana and beat them on the road in a game they were losing with a minute left on the clock before finally managing to pull off a win.
Their other win came over a decidedly overmatched Chicago Sky, a team they beat three of four times last year.
New York is 2-0.
They beat their rival and former two-time WNBA champ, the Las Vegas Aces.
Their other win came against the Sky.
Both wins were by double digits, 14 vs Vegas and 25 vs Chicago.
There weren’t any major roster changes to either team in the offseason, so last year’s scores carry over some relevance into this season.
The Liberty won three or four. Their only loss was at Indiana, by five points. There are numbers worth noting from the other three games – New York won by 36, 11, and 36 again.
Average margin of victory 27.6 points.
And now they’re on the road as a -2′ pt Fav over the Fever?
I’ll bite.
The Liberty will be a popular pick which concerns me a bit, I don’t like siding with the people’s choice. But sometimes a team is the popular pick for a reason – because they’re simply the better team.
Like NY in this game.
When to Buy Recommendation
Despite Clark’s popularity, I expect this number to go higher, so if you like New York, buy this one early.
My buy:
NY -2′
