|
Los Angeles Sparks (21-6) at San Antonio Silver Stars (11-13)
Anderson is out for the season after suffering a fractured kneecap Friday against the Washington Mystics. Her absence was immediately noticeable for San Antonio (11-13) in Saturday''s 79-61 loss to Connecticut as the team had no answer for 7-foot-2 Margo Dydek, a former Silver Star who led the Sun with a season-high 18 points. Her substitute rookie forward Sophia Young had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Silver Stars, who shot just 31.3 percent from the field. How she will compete today against Leslie who had a career-high 41 points in a 105-80 rout of the Silver Stars on June 25? It would be really difficult taking into account that Sparks have Chamique Holdsclaw near Leslie... And I think this may hurt Stars tonight because LA Sparks can't lose points with such teams like San Antonio. There was information provided at MySA.com that forward Shyra Ely is expected to return to the lineup tonight. Ely has been sidelined with a broken left foot since the third game of the season. Her return would give the Silver Stars help inside, where they are down to Sophia Young and Katie Feenstra, but I doubt that she will be able to play at her highest level today after missing 20 days. Now let's look at head-2-head stats. Sparks have 2 wins against SA this season 80-71 and 105-80, but they surpsingly lost their 3rd season game 63-85 playing at home and this could be a psychological factor for Los Angeles team today I suppose. In first game bookmakers have set level line and Sparks won by 9 points, in second game line was set at -9 points and Sparks covered this handicap easily by winning 105-85 (+20), but in 3rd game Sparks missed a lot FG by shooting only 33% while their opponents found the 3 point shot (SA hit 10 of 17 3pts (59%) in that game). In 10 of 12 quarters Sparks scored more than 17 points and those 10 quarters average was 22.4 points per quarter, but also there is one quarter when they scored 29 points, and it slightly increase that average which should be about 21.5 without that quarter. SA is allowing 74.5 points in last 10 games and I expect to see Sparks scoring somewhere about 80 points today while San Antonio need to find their 3 point shot again to compete well today, but I LA should be ready for this now after losing last game at home. The only problem I see in this match is that LA will play after hard battle in Houston and their legs could be tired a bit. But what I like more it is their away ATS record (8-4-0), SA home ATS (4-7-0) and that LA won 9 of last 10 games against San Antonio. Only one win of those 9 was easy so I don't expect easy game today but it's worth to try with medium stake. Predicted score: San Antonio 76 - 84 LA Sparks Pick: LA Sparks (-4) (medium stake)
Sacramento Monarchs (16-9) at Detroit Shock (16-7)
SPREAD: Detroit -4.5 TOTAL: 136 From SacBee.com:
"After Tuesday's bruising 75-60 loss in Indiana, the Monarchs will catch an early flight to Detroit this morning.
There won't be time for practice -- only brunch and game film of the Shock, which the Monarchs play today at 4:30 p.m. "We'll have just enough time to watch some tape," Monarchs coach John Whisenant said. "Then I will send our ladies to their room for an afternoon nap before we see what we can do."
Sacramento will play its third of four games on this road trip, against a team it hasn't played this season. Whisenant said he expected Indiana to be the easiest game to win before playing Detroit and Connecticut (on Friday) because the Monarchs had two days of rest." Nothing more to add here... we know that Sacramento is capable to win any team in this league as well as lose to anyone. What to expect today? Public money goes on home side Detroit, but stop... last season sacramento beat Detroit twice 80-63 away and 91-51 at home. Detroit has 9-2 home record but what teams they met at home? Chicago, Charlotte (twice), San Antonio, Phoenix, New York, Minnesota, Indy, Houston and LA Sparks. 7 of those 9 wins were got against under 50% teams while away Detroit is only 7-5. More of that Sacramento have defence... good defence in last 10 games. Yesterday Indy scored only 25 pts after 20 minutes but then Sacramento stopped to play for some reason (I did not see a game). And a key factor today for me today is that Sacramento let their opponents to do only 53.7 shots per game while Detroit is used to make 64 shots. This factor may decrease Shock scoring ability and I highly doubt that they will score 70 points today while Sacramento can score 65 points in any tempo game, as they have scored more than 65 points in 8 of last 10 games, and Detroit allowing 68 points a game when playing at home. So I think that today Detroit would not have easy walk against Monarchs and there is a big chance that public money wil gol into bookmakers pockets. Predicted score: Detroit 65 - 69 Sacramento Pick: Sacramento +4.5 (low stakes)
New articles on this topic:
Older articles on this topic: |
