Home team listed first
July 12
Fever -8 Stars
Sky +3.5 Wings
Storm +4 Sun
Mercury -8 Dream
Sky with a great win w/o Pondexter...addition by subtraction, their two other guards, Vandersloot and Quigley won the game for them. Now comes the quandary for the Sky...there is obvious loyalty to Pondexter by the Sky coaching staff...do they sit her ass down after it should have become obvious to everyone that she is a detriment to her team? I personally was involved with a situation like this in my playing career.....the player kept getting his minutes and the team underachieved as a result, and my expectation will be Pondexter will continue to get her time after she's cleared concussion protocol, and at the end of the season there will be a parting of the ways.
Sun showed their mettle and their conditioning in their HUGE comeback against the Mystics, and "that was that"........the changing of the guard in the East for at least the next few years. If they keep their coac, the Sun will rule. Storm crushed the Sparks after a post-Lynx meltdown. It looked like more of a total collapse of the Sparks than anything special that the Storm did. Candace Parker failed to show up, and the Sparks are so reliant on their big two this year that it's curtains when one of them has a bad game, even against mediocre competition.
Fever will be at their best selves when they play on their happy home court against the worst team in the league....I'd have to be getting at least 12 for me to want to take the Stars.
Mercury I don't trust as big favs.....Dream have had a couple of nice home wins, but I still think their guards are sub-standard....their bigs will battle hard against Griner though...the effort is there for the Dream, it's their basketball IQ that I worry about.
July 13 Sparks -6 Sun
Sparks catch Sun in the perfect situation, as Connecticut played yesterday on the road, which will negate their superior conditioning in a back to back situation. Sparks crumbled in their last game and will be focused.....it may be a time to back them.
July 14
Fever -1 Mystics
Liberty -8 Sky
Phoenix +3 Lynx
Fever are about 8 points/game better on their home floor....Mystics usually rebound after a poor showing...toss up game.
Liberty play better when they've had some adversity...want to see what has happened with the Pondexter situation for the Sky. Would like to take the Sky and get a boatload of points but we'll see.
Mercury is the exact opposite to the Lynx,....the Lynx have pride, they are unselfish and they try hard and they will have had their very good coach in their ear the whole week until this game, telling them how they're overrated, etc.
There was an NBA player back in the 80s, Joe Barry Carroll, number one overall draft pick, the Celtics traded had the number one pick that year (eerily similar to this year) and traded the the pick to the Warriors for Robert Parrish and the number 3 overall pick, who only became a hall-of-famer, Kevin McHale. His nickname was Joe "Barely Cares" who disappeared into anonymity.
That is how I'd characterize the Mercury, they barely care. They will get crushed by the Lynx, who are off a loss having a loooong time to stew in their own juices.
July 15
Storm -5 Dream
I'm liking the Storm less and less as the season moves on.