 VS. 
Phoenix Mercury - NY Liberty
When the Phoenix Mercury visited Madison Square Garden last month, they hardly looked like the defending WNBA champs as they began a five-game road trip with a blowout loss to the New York Liberty. Instead, the Mercury will have a different look - that of the league's hottest team - when they return home for the rematch on Saturday night.Phoenix goes for its fifth straight victory, and hopes to avenge its most lopsided loss in six years when it meets the Liberty for the final time in the regular season. New York's 105-72 home win over Phoenix on June 22 set a new Liberty record for most points, and handed the Mercury their biggest defeat since an 89-48 loss at Seattle in 2002.
The Liberty, who have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games, are 1-2 on their five-game Western Conference trip. They're coming off an 84-71 loss at Seattle on Thursday, and had trouble defending the Storm's high-scoring duo of Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, who combined for 56 points. They'll find out against the Mercury, who have the top two scorers in the league, with Cappie Pondexter second behind Taurasi at 23.6 points per game. Pondexter, though, did not play against the Dream. The Liberty have lost their last two visits to the US Airways Center, including a 97-86 defeat last season. Penny Taylor, who took this season off to compete for Australia at the Beijing Olympics, had 31 and Pondexter added 27 for the Mercury. Prediction
We have 180 points total line but I think it's too much even for Phoenix playing at home. Liberty is not an high scoring and high tempo team as Phoenix to set such high total line. I think that here we have too much reflection from first game in New York when Liberty scored 100+ points. At the end of their road trip they should have less energy and also Phoenix should put more effort on defense to revenge for 32-point loss. My statistical analysis shows that fair over/under line for this match up should be around 174.5 points (90-84.5) but I would not be surprised to see even lower final score because Phoenix have Pondexter as game-time decision (rest) and also they have back-to-back game against LA Sparks which is more important because it will decide regular season series between thes clubs. So it is very possible that Phoenix coach will try to save startes energy for tomorrow's game.
Predicted score: Phoenix 88 - 82 New York
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