Los Angeles Sparks Archives

Aces vs. Sparks Prediction, Odds and Key Players for WNBA Commissioner’s Cup

The Las Vegas Aces are off to a slow start this season – by their standards – going 5-3 through their first eight games.

Last season, the Aces only lost six regular season games the whole year, so they’re certainly behind that pace heading into Sunday’s matchup with the Los Angeles Sparks.

The Sparks are massive underdogs in this game, but they did pick up their third win of the season on Friday against Dallas. Dearica Hamby has played at an All-Star level for a Sparks team that is rebuilding around rookie Rickea Jackson and No. 2 overall pick Cameron Brink.

The Aces are down two key players – Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray – in this matchup. Does that give the Sparks a chance at an upset?

Here’s a look at the latest odds and my best bet for this Sunday night matchup:

Spread

Moneyline

Total

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.

Aces Injury Report

Sparks Injury Report

Las Vegas Aces

A’ja Wilson: A’ja Wilson is off to an incredible start this season, averaging 28.0 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.6 blocks per game for the Aces. Wilson has scored 28 or more points in five straight games and at least 21 in every game this season. She’ll need to do even more with Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray out on Sunday

Los Angeles Sparks

Dearica Hamby: A former Aces player, Hamby has been dominant for the Sparks in 2024, averaging 20.6 points and 11.6 rebounds per game. Hamby is coming off a 22-point showing in a win over the Dallas Wings on Friday night. Watching her and Wilson battle in the paint should be fun.

Call me crazy, but I’m going to take the points in this game and bet on Los Angeles.

The Sparks have struggled so far this season, but they are coming off an impressive home win – their first time covering at home this season – and have the size down low to at least make things tough on Wilson at the basket.

Usually, this Aces team would be an auto bet at this number, but they’re missing nearly 40 points per game with Young and Gray out.

Maybe a veteran like the newly acquired Tiffany Hayes can step up, but she shot just 1-for-8 in the loss to Seattle on Friday.

In that game, the Aces scored just 65 points and 47 of them came from Wilson and Kelsey Plum. That was with Young playing 28 minutes as well.

I am just not sold on the Aces getting enough production from their bench and role players to win this game in a massive blowout.

Pick: Sparks +10.5 (-108)

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

Find Peter Dewey's betting record here You can also follow my daily plays on BetStamp here.

9 Jun 24 Jimm Sallivan

Peter’s Points: WNBA Best Bets Today (Predictions, Prop Bets for Sabrina Ionescu, Mercury-Wings)

Sunday brings a loaded WNBA slate of Commissioner’s Cup games before Game 2 of the NBA Finals tips off, giving us a chance to watch basketball all day long.

It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

The Washington Mystics and New York Liberty kick off the action on Sunday after 3 p.m. EST, but that’s not the only game I’m betting on today.

There are two player props that I’m targeting for some veteran players, as well as a moneyline pick in the Dallas Wings-Phoenix Mercury matchup with Brittney Griner and Rebecca Allen back for the Mercury.

Let’s break down each of these picks for a basketball-filled close to the weekend:

Find Peter Dewey's WNBA betting record here (futures included). You can also follow my daily plays on BetStamp here.

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.

Phoenix Mercury Moneyline (-120) vs. Dallas Wings

The Wings have dropped four games in a row, and they lack the offensive firepower after Arike Ogunbowale to compete with a fully healthy Mercury team in my eyes.

Satou Sabally and Natasha Howard being out has forced several Wings players to step up into bigger roles than they’d usually have.

Even though Ogunbowale is scoring the ball at a high rate, she’s not shooting it efficiently, and neither are the Wings as a whole. They rank eighth in the league in effective field goal percentage, and that’s not the worst part of their advanced numbers in 2024.

Dallas is also 10th in the league in defensive rating, which is a major concern given the weapons (Griner, Diana Taurasi, Kahleah Copper) that the Mercury have on offense.

Now, I don’t want to act like Phoenix has been elite this season. It actually ranks 11th in defensive rating and 10th in net rating in 2024, but we have to remember that two starters were out for the first 10 games of the season.

The first game they came back?

Phoenix promptly beat the best team in the Western Conference right now as a 5.5-point underdog.

The Mercury have some big wins (over Minnesota and Las Vegas) and their defense should improve with Griner protecting the rim. Before Phoenix was running an extremely small four-guard lineup.

I think this is a buy low spot on the Mercury before oddsmakers realize how deadly this team can be at full strength.

Sabrina Ionescu OVER 18.5 Points (-105) – 0.5 unit

Sabrina Ionescu has been on fire as of late, scoring 22 or more points in four of her last six games, pushing her season-long scoring average to 17.8 points per game.

After a slow shooting start to the season, we’re starting to see what the two-time All-Star is truly capable of, and she’s coming off a huge 24-point game in a win over the Connecticut Sun on Saturday.

With Courtney Vandersloot (personal) likely out of the lineup for the second straight game on Sunday, Ionescu should play pretty heavy minutes against the Washington Mystics, who rank ninth in the league in defensive rating this season.

Plus, Sloot usually initiates a ton of offense, so it’s likely that Ionescu will have the ball in her hands even more than usual in this game. Despite a poor 4-for-12 shooting game against the Mystics earlier this season, Ionescu is one of my favorite targets on Sunday.

Nneka Ogwumike OVER 16.5 Points (-110) – 0.5 unit

For the third time this season, Nneka Ogwumike and the Seattle Storm will match up with the Minnesota Lynx, and Ogwumike has dominated this matchup in 2024.

The veteran forward had 20 points on 10-of-18 shooting in the season opener before dropping 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting in the next matchup. On the season, Ogwumike is averaging 17.7 points per game, clearing 16.5 points in five of her seven appearances.

She’s seen her scoring drop in her last three games (10, 17 and 12 points), but Ogwumike has still attempted double-digit shots in all but one game.

Given her success against Minnesota this season, I’ll buy low on this prop at 16.5 after it was nearing 20.5 earlier in the season.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

29 May 24 Jimm Sallivan

SI:AM | This Is the Caitlin Clark Everyone Expected to See

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I don’t think the Timberwolves are going to complete the comeback, but I’m glad they’re at least shortening the break before the NBA Finals.

In today’s SI:AM:

⛹️‍♀️Caitlin Clark goes off
🐺 T-Wolves survive
⚾ MLB recognizes Negro League stats

Over the course of her first seven WNBA games, Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark looked like, well, a rookie. She had a handful of solid offensive performances (three games with at least 20 points) but also her fair share of struggles (like a 2-for-8 shooting night in a loss to the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday).

But in Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks, Clark had her first true superstar game as a pro, scoring 30 points (on 7-of-16 shooting) with five rebounds, six assists, three steals and three blocks. She’s the first rookie since Rhynne Howard in 2022 to have a 30-point game and the first since Sabrina Ionescu in ’20 to have 30 points, five assists and five rebounds in a game. Not impressed yet? Clark is the first rookie in WNBA history and just the fourth WNBA player ever to have at least 30 points, five assists, five rebounds, three blocks and three steals in a game.

That’s the kind of performance fans expected from Clark when she turned pro, and it was only a matter of time before it became a reality. Every rookie needs some time to adjust to the higher level of play in the pros, and the transition is especially hard for WNBA players who had barely a month between the end of their college season and the start of their rookie year.

But it wasn’t all positive news for Clark. For one thing, she also notched seven turnovers. Losing the ball has been the biggest problem for Clark in her brief pro career. She currently leads the WNBA in turnovers per game with 5.3, well ahead of the next closest player, Skyler Diggins-Smith with 4.3. Turnovers are nothing new for Clark. She led the NCAA in that category three times in her college career and ranks third on the all-time list. But if the biggest problem with her game is that she coughs the ball up a little more often than you’d like, that’s something the Fever can certainly live with.

More disappointingly, the Fever lost the game, 88–82, to drop to 1–7 on the season. That’s the second worst record in the league. Only the winless Washington Mystics (0–6) have been worse.

“I think I just played with an aggressive mindset,” Clark told reporters. “I think that was the biggest thing—to play downhill the best I could. We did some good things and then we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot.”

The Fever’s best stretch came immediately after halftime, when they started the third quarter on an 11–0 run to take a 43–37 lead. But the Sparks closed the quarter with an 11–0 run of their own to go up 59–55. The Los Angeles lead swelled to as many as 14 in the fourth quarter as the Fever failed to turn the tide.

“You don't give yourself a chance … You can't do something right for two and a half quarters and then just stop doing it,” Indiana coach Christie Sides said. “We were going under some of the screens that were supposed to be going over. We were gambling and getting out of position.

“Instead of us stepping over and stopping them (and) having our teammates’ back, we're reaching. That’s just a lack of discipline.”

The Fever clearly still have a lot to figure out, but the more games like Tuesday’s that Clark has, the easier the wins will come.

Karl-Anthony Towns celebrates during Timberwolves’ Game 4 win vs. Mavericks.

Towns stepped up to keep Minnesota alive vs. Dallas on Tuesday. / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

… things I saw last night:

5. A great defensive play by San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Chapman.
4. Luke Raley’s home run robbery.
3. Sam Reinhart’s overtime game-winner for the Florida Panthers to tie their series against the New York Rangers.
2. Anthony Edwards’s fantastic basket in the lane late in the fourth quarter.
1. Derrick Jones Jr.’s acrobatic alley-oop (made possible by a fantastic pass from Luka Dončić).

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Category: Los Angeles Sparks