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Connecticut Sun (17-6) at New York Liberty (4-19)
DATE/TIME: Monday, July 24 - 7:30 PM EST
SPREAD: New York 10.5 TOTAL: 146 Mired in their worst season in franchise history, the New York Liberty look to end their team-record 10-game losing streak when they host the Eastern Conference-leading Connecticut Sun on Monday. The Liberty (4-19) set the franchise record for most losses in a season Saturday, falling 91-54 to Seattle in their worst defeat this year. New York hasn''t won since a 93-83 victory in Minnesota on June 24.``The big picture is the ''W'' and we didn''t get it, so it''s frustrating,'''' said reserve guard Erin Thorn, who scored 19 points against the Storm. ``It''s always frustrating not to be hitting shots and not to be executing like we can.'''' Leading scorer Becky Hammon, who averages 15.4 points per game, missed her fifth straight contest because of a sprained left ankle and leading rebounder Kelly Schumacher is out for the rest of the season after spraining the medial collateral ligament in her right knee last Thursday in Sacramento. Without Hammon and Schumacher, the Liberty allowed 17 unanswered points and trailed 30-8 after the first quarter Saturday.``We just came out slow, let them hit shots early,'''' Thorn said, ``and they got on a run.'''' The Liberty are 2-8 at Madison Square Garden and a loss Monday would tie them with expansion Chicago for the league''s worst home record. Connecticut (17-6), meanwhile, is a WNBA-best 8-4 on the road.The Sun won their third straight and improved to 6-1 in their last seven games with a 79-61 victory at San Antonio on Saturday. Margo Dydek led Connecticut with a season-high 18 points, and also added eight rebounds, six blocked shots and four steals.``I feel we won because we play well together as a team, we know the importance of road games and are very comfortable in the first place,'''' Dydek said.Katie Douglas scored 15 points, Taj McWilliams-Franklin had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Lindsay Whalen added 13 points and seven assists as the Sun took advantage of a San Antonio team missing three of its starters.Douglas is returning to Madison Square Garden for the first time since scoring 16 points and being named MVP of the All-Star game as the East beat the West 98-82 on July 12. The Liberty are trying to avoid getting closer to the WNBA''s all-time single-season losing streak of 13, set by the Sky this season and Detroit in 2002. The defunct Portland Fire own the all-time mark for consecutive defeats, losing 14 straight from July 27, 2001-June 3, 2002.New York has dropped both meetings with Connecticut this season by an average of 16.0 points. The teams meet for the final time this year on Aug. 1 at Mohegan Sun Arena. Betting Preview: Connecticut is 4th rebounding team in the league and NY Liberty is only at 16 place by rebounding margin, they are losing rebounding battle by 5.61 rebounds per game in average. In both this season matches Liberty lost rebounding battle to Connecticut 27-41 and 26-28. But today Liberty will play without 2 key players and one of them - Kelly Schumacher - is team best rebounder (5.5 rebounds per game),so what are their chances under basket against strong Connecticut duo McWilliams-Franklin - Margo Dydek? I think that Liberty has only one chance to compete well at this spot: to shoot with 60% percentage. But another problem is that they don't have players who can take a leader role now. And their 36.7% FG in last five games prove that they have very big problems in offense. It's difficult to predict total for this game but I think that Connecticut is capable to score their total setted at 78 points while New York Liberty needs some kind of miracle to overplay Suns under basket and find a new leaders, and I highly doubt that they will be able to score 68 points like bookmakers think. So I will take Connecticut to cover handicap but only with medium-low stakes because there is no quarantee that Connecticut would not stop playing after having 15 points advantage, especially in the end of the away game. Predicted score: New York 64 - Connecticut 79 Pick: Connecticut -10.5 (medium-low stakes)
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