Sky -6.5 over Mercury
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- Brittney Griner is out for this road trip for the Mercury, to focus on her mental health. Her absence will hurt an already anemic Mercury offense.
- The Mercury are 1-11 on the road this season, with those 11 road losses coming by an average of 15.3 points per game.
The New York Liberty will play for the second straight night on Friday night, when they host the Minnesota Lynx at Barclays Center. New York beat the Atlanta Dream on Thursday, but will need to get up for this contest on a quick turnaround. Meanwhile, the Lynx will be without their top weapon, and will need to find a way to perform without her in their lineup. In our WNBA betting picks for Friday night, we look at this alliterative Lynx vs Liberty matchup.
Mercury vs Sky Betting Pick
Sky -6.5 over Mercury
Why Bet on the Sky:
✅ The absence of Brittney Griner in the paint will force the Mercury to rely even more heavily on a subpar guard group to score, which is not going to work for them.
✅ Chicago is sitting in eighth place in the WNBA standings going into this game, and wins in games like this one are musts to remain in playoff positioning.
✅ The Mercury are the worst road team in the WNBA this season at 1-11 away from home in 2023.
This game will be played at Wintrust Arena at 4:00 PM ET on Sunday, July 29, 2023.
Phoenix Mercury
This season has been a gigantic disappointment for the Phoenix Mercury, who sit in 10th place in the WNBA standings. They are 1-11 at home on the year, they had to fire their head coach in the middle of the season, and now they are without Brittney Griner for mental health concerns. To be fair, my mental health would also be a disaster playing for this Phoenix Mercury team, but mental health is no laughing matter and we hope all is well with BG.
As for this Mercury vs Sky matchup, things will be tough without Griner to punish the Sky in the paint. Chicago’s biggest weakness is its interior defense, and the lack of Griner will push the scoring duty to the perimeter, where the Mercury just aren’t good enough to be consistently dangerous.
Chicago Sky
For now, the Chicago Sky sit in eighth place in the WNBA standings, which would be good enough to make the playoffs if they could hold onto that spot. Given that their roster isn’t all that good, and they lost their coach and GM to the NBA, that’s a decent achievement in and of itself. Here, the Sky have a game they almost must win, as dropping a game to a 1-11 road team would be devastating to their playoff candidacy.
In this game, putting pressure on the guards of the Mercury by running in transition will be huge. Forcing subpar defenders like Diana Taurasi to defend against pace could make a bad Mercury team look even worse than usual in the Windy City.