A couple of years ago, the WNBA community seemingly stopped when the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty met.
They were the league’s “superteams” and have combined to win the past three championships.
However, Las Vegas has lost a step and is mired in a 9-9 season, while the Liberty have lost five of their past seven games.
The Liberty’s struggles can be attributed to playing without the injured Jonquel Jones, who is the reigning WNBA Finals MVP.
They are still the betting favorites to defend their title.
The Aces’ struggles center more on inconsistency, although reigning MVP A’ja Wilson did miss some time with a concussion.
However, Las Vegas has some legitimate issues.
The Liberty are a five-point home favorite Tuesday with a total of 165.5 points.
I expect to see some points, particularly in the first half.
Aces coach Becky Hammon has tweaked her lineup lately and is turning to rotations that will generate points.
Vegas has been stagnant at times, standing and watching Wilson go to work. She needs help.
Hammon is using quick point guard Dana Evans, and that has helped. Ultimately they will need to hit shots, but Hammon understands the needs to bolster the offense and has made that a priority, even if it comes at the expense of defense.
Meanwhile, the Liberty undoubtedly miss Jones, but they should be able to get enough scoring from Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart.
Plus, the recent return of starter Leonie Fiebich has helped.
Ionescu has a tendency to hit a wall like she did this past Sunday after scoring 20 points in the first half. Seattle Storm coach Noelle Quinn wisely started isolating Ionescu on defense and forcing her to expend energy.
That inhibited her offense and held the sharpshooter to just two points in the second half.
This might come down to Stewart returning to form, coming off a 4-for-17 shooting performance, and she is 18-for-53 over her past three games.
I have a 53-46-1 ATS record in this Post sports section.
My next play is the first half of this game Over 81.5 points at FanDuel (-110).
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.