The WNBA All-Star Break is rather short, with the league returning to full-tilt action on Tuesday, less than a week after the pause began. But All-Star Weekend is still rife with the competitive sideshows that make it actually entertaining.
Sabrina Ionescu has returned to pursue her second 3-Point Contest title after a record-setting showing in 2023. Meanwhile, Caitlin Clark has elected to forego festivities, a particular disappointment given all this weekend’s festivities are in Indianapolis and the Indiana Fever star would have been the de facto host.
My best bet for the WNBA 3-Point Contest on Friday, July 18, is a touch further down the odds board.
WNBA 3-Point Contest odds
Kelsey Plum
Sonia CitronOdds as of 7-17.
WNBA 3-Point Contest rules
Like the NBA, the WNBA has experimented with format changes to the 3-point contest in recent years. While the W often doesn’t release official rulesets until the broadcast of the contest, the expectation is that this year’s rules will see the return of last year’s format.
The following are the most relevant rules:
- Players are given 70 seconds to shoot 27 balls from five locations around the arc.
- Four of the five racks contain four WNBA game balls and one tri-colored "moneyball." The fifth rack contains five tri-colored moneyballs. Players choose in advance where they would like to have the moneyball rack positioned.
- Regular game balls are worth one point and moneyballs are worth two points.
- There are two additional "Starry Range" ball pedestals, one located between racks two and three and another between racks three and four. These balls are worth three points each.
- Players must exhaust the ball racks and pedestals in competition order before moving on to the next shooting location.
- The order of the competition is determined by a random draw.
WNBA 3-Point Contest favorites
Sabrina Ionescu (+120 at Caesars)
Sabrina Ionescu has struggled somewhat from deep this season, hitting just 31.1% of her 3-point attempts while taking eight per game. She had a brief surge in early June, but has hit just 18-of-71 shots from long range in nine games over the last month, a rough 25.4%.
A cynic could point out that Ionescu has never actually been the most proficient shooter from deep aside from her 2023 season, when she hit 44.8% from deep. Otherwise, Ionescu has never hit better than 33.3% from distance, excluding her three-game rookie season.
But Ionescu still set a 3-point contest record in 2023, when she sank 25 of her 27 final-round shots, scoring 37 points.
Caitlin Clark (+250 at Caesars)
Caitlin Clark was second on the odds board before she announced Thursday that she will not partake in the 3-Point Contest.
a message from Caitlin Clark ❤️ pic.twitter.com/zRGZEpqF5R
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) July 17, 2025
When you have missed 10 of your team’s 23 games with muscle strains, including one Wednesday night just before the All-Star Break, a genuine week off understandably takes priority.
Kelsey Plum (+275 at Caesars)
The two-time WNBA champion has shouldered more of the offensive workload in her first season with the Los Angeles Sparks. Thus, Plum’s 3-point percentage has dropped to 35.8% from a peak of 42.0% in 2022 with the Las Vegas Aces, 38.9% in 2023, and 36.8% in 2024.
Is Plum getting worse as she hits 30, or is she playing a more inefficient role as more focus lands on her? The latter seems more likely, particularly as she is averaging 20.1 points per game while dishing out a career-high 5.8 assists per game.
Allisha Gray (+325 at Caesars)
The Atlanta Dream guard has hit 38.1% of her 3-point attempts this season, the best percentage in the WNBA among players to have taken at least 100 threes. Her inclusion in this showcase was therefore a bit of a no-brainer, particularly as she won it last year and the Dream deserve more attention, sitting fifth in the standings as a genuine contender to be the fourth-best team in the league, a notable cutoff when pondering playoff possibilites.
But one may worry that Gray has cooled off of late, hitting only 14 of 52 shots from deep in the last eight games, 26.9%.
Sonia Citron (+475 at Caesars)
The Washington Mystics rookie is a bit of an unexpected entry into the 3-Point Contest, but she is quietly having a debut season that would garner all sorts of headlines if Paige Bueckers weren't doing so many Paige Bueckers things.
The two really have little to do with each other aside from landing in the same draft class because of Bueckers’s injuries in college. But for now, they are put in stark comparison as rookies.
And as well as Bueckers is playing, deserving of every accolade and the clear choice as Rookie of the Year, Citron is shooting that much better from deep. The No. 3 overall pick has hit 36.5% on 4.4 attempts per game, compared to Bueckers’s 33.9% on 3.3 attempts per game.
WNBA 3-Point Contest pick
Gray is shooting a better percentage this season, and Ionescu has proven brilliance in this event.
But both have fallen off of late.
Meanwhile, Kelsey Plum has improved in recent weeks. Her time in Los Angeles started with a torrid streak from deep, hitting 43.4% in her first six games before cooling off in June. Defenses adjusted to the offensive emphasis on Plum.
In recent weeks, however, Plum has navigated defensive focus and regained her rhythm. Facing three of the stingiest perimeter defenses in her last four games, Plum has still hit 13 of 25 from deep in the last two weeks.
That may be a relatively small sample size, but it is also the only encouraging recent run among the contestants in the 3-Point Contest.
Best bet: Kelsey Plum (+275 at Caesars)
Past 3-Point Contest Winners
| Year | Player |
|---|---|
| 2024 |  Allisha Gray |
| 2023 |  Sabrina Ionescu |
| 2022 |  Allie Quigley |
| 2021 | Allie Quigley |
| 2020 | N/A (Covid) |
| 2019 |  Shekinna Stricklen |
| 2018 | Allie Quigley |
| 2017 | Allie Quigley |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
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