The WNBA season begins on Friday night, and the defending champion Chicago Sky headline an interesting matchup on the first night of the 2022 campaign. They host the Los Angeles Sparks, as a team that greatly improved its roster will take on a Sky team looking to prove that last year’s championship season was no fluke. In our WNBA predictions for opening night, we look at Sparks vs Sky in a game that will be a nice litmus test for each side.
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Sparks vs Sky Betting Pick
This game will be played at Wintrust Arena at 8:00 PM ET on Friday, May 6, 2022.
Why Bet The Sparks:
✅ The Chicago Sky won the WNBA Finals a season ago, but their roster has been downgraded since then. Stefanie Dolson and Diamond DeShields are no longer on the roster, while Kaleah Copper and Allie Quigley are out for this game. Chicago has just seven regular members of their roster active for this game, and will be adding several hardship exemption players for this contest.
✅ Los Angeles, meanwhile, upgraded its roster significantly this offseason by bringing in Chennedy Carter, Jordin Canada, and Liz Cambage. Combined with the Ogwumikes, the Sparks should be much better than the team that failed to qualify for the playoffs a season ago. Against a weakened Sky team, the Sparks might win outright as an underdog in their season opener.
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✅ Perception and reality for the Sky are very different after their championship season. The Sky won the title last year, but they were a .500 team during the regular season and struggled throughout. They will look more like the team that finished in the middle of the pack during the regular season than the best team in the league given all of the players out for them right now.
Los Angeles Sparks
Last season was a disappointing one for the Los Angeles Sparks, but they have reloaded their roster in the offseason. They have brought in Liz Cambage from the Las Vegas Aces, Jordin Canada from the Seattle Storm, and Chennedy Carter from the Atlanta Dream in an effort to get back to the top of the league in a hurry. As a result, they are a trendy pick to win the title at longer odds than the current favorites in the WNBA.
The question early in the season for the Sparks will be whether or not they can come together and play well as a team early in the season. Cambage and Carter can be difficult to work with from a chemistry perspective, but the sheer amount of talent on this roster might be enough for the Sparks to hit the ground running.
Chicago Sky
The Chicago Sky finished the last WNBA season on top of the league, winning the WNBA Finals over the Phoenix Mercury. They start their title defense this year at home against the Sparks, and the Sky will need to overcome some very important losses as the season tips off. With a couple of key players leaving for other teams in the offseason, and a couple of members of their roster out for this contest, the Sky will not look all that similar to last year’s championship squad in game one.
Fortunately for the Sky, they have an elite trio in Courtney Vandersloot, Candace Parker, and Emma Meesseman to buoy them in the meantime. Meesseman makes her return to the WNBA after a year off to focus on playing for the Belgian national team in the Olympics. But this big three might not be enough to overcome the fact that this team does not currently have 10 active players without resorting to multiple hardship exemptions to start the year.