Tonight, we will see the second encounter between these two teams, after New York Liberty winning the first match with a final score of 93:89.
Dallas Wings are coming into this fixture with a 1-4 record in the past 5 games, which is far from good form. Due to their bad performances lately, they have fallen to 5th place in the West with an overall record of 4-7. Looking at their recent match against Los Angeles Sparks, the loss was somewhat expected, as Sparks have been performing very well this season, winning 7 out of 10 games played and are currently sitting at 2nd spot in the West. Anyhow, the match could have easily gone the other way if Dallas Wings would not let Sparks outscore them by 15 points in the 1st quarter (23:8), which arguably lost them the match. Looking at the remaining 3 quarters, Dallas have put up a decent fight, especially in the last quarter, when they outscored Sparks by 10 points (25:35). Nevertheless, the lead Sparks accumulated up until that point was too much to come back from for Dallas and with that, they lost their 4 consecutive away matches. It’s no secret Dallas is not performing as they could, but that does not mean it’s over for them. The season is not nearly over and if they can fix the problems they have, I see them in the Playoffs for sure.
The visiting team, New York Liberty are performing very well in the last few games. A record of 4-1 speaks for itself and they deservedly sit at 2nd spot in the East. The last match they played spelled the end of their 4-0 run with a huge loss against Connecticut Sun (96:76). Looking at the Eastern Conference standings, Connecticut does not look as a strong team, as they are in 5th position. However, they have improved a lot recently, winning 4 games in the last 5 played and if they continue this way they can easily get into Playoffs. The match was mostly one-sided, with Connecticut finishing 1st quarter 9 points ahead. Throughout the match, they slowly but surely added a few points to their lead with each quarter and Liberty seemed as they could not find the answer for Sun offence. All in all, it was not the best performance from New York Liberty, actually, it was not good at all. With that defeat, they have not lost 2 consecutive away games.
Looking at the recent form from the teams, Liberty comes off as favourites in today’s fixture. Of course, they underperformed against Connecticut, but that won’t stop them to give their all tonight. I expect NY Liberty to win tonight and stop their away games losing streak.
Prediction: New York Liberty -1.5 points
Odds: 1.96 Pinnacle
