It looks as though fans will be deprived yet again of seeing Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers face each other in the WNBA.
Clark is expected to miss her 15th game this season due to injury when the Indiana Fever visit the Dallas Wings on Friday. She also missed the July meeting.
Clark and Bueckers last met in the 2024 Final Four with Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes outlasting UConn in a game that came down to the final seconds.
WNBA fans are eager to see the first pro chapter of what is expected to be a long-standing rivalry. The All-Star guards have been chosen with the top draft pick in consecutive years.
The Fever are three-point road favorites with a total of 169 points.
As a handicapper, the key is to analyze the Fever in games that Clark has missed, as only those apply to this matchup. Indy has won three straight games and is 7-7 without its star guard, compared to 8-5 with her.
The Fever are a better and more explosive team with Clark. However, they still maintain their high pace with Aari McDonald running the point in Clark’s place. For example, they just scored 107 points in their last game.
Dallas has shown improvement recently, but ultimately, this team is lottery-bound because of its bad defense. The Wings allow 86.4 points per game, which ranks fourth-worst.
Injuries have also played a role, but Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale are now healthy, and Dallas is making some noise. The Wings just beat the reigning champion Liberty by scoring 92 points and lost in the final seconds to the Atlanta Dream.
I expect another competitive, back-and-forth game. Additionally, I anticipate a high-scoring showdown because both teams identify with their high-octane offense. That is furthered by Dallas recently incorporating a smaller starting lineup with the 6-foot-1 Haley Jones replacing 6-7 Li Yueru.
I have a 58-47-1 ATS record in this Post sports section, and my next play is Over 169 points.
Doug Kezirian is a New York Post contributor who has over two decades of experience in the betting space, including spending 11 years at ESPN as a host, columnist and betting analyst. He’s also the rare personality who has documented success – 14th place in 2023 Circa Million and Las Vegas SuperContest ($37K), two top-10 finishes in 2022 William Hill College Football Challenge ($58K) and also grabbed headlines with a $297K win on the 2021 NFL Draft.