The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx face off in their tenth game of the WNBA season inside the bubble at IMG Academy on Saturday. Both of these two teams are facing major issues coming into this game with injuries.
The New York Liberty have had a terrible season so far this year and coming into this game they have lost three games in a row. The offense hasn’t been terrible as of late, but their offense hasn’t been good enough to make up for the terrible defense. In the last game the Liberty’s defense gave up 86 points to the Indiana Fever, an offense that hasn’t been exactly known as elite. On the season the Liberty are averaging 74.3 points while giving up 86.1 points per game.
The Liberty are without standout rookie Sabrina Ionescu who is dealing with an ankle injury. That is a big loss for a team that was counting The Liberty are now led by Layshia Clarendon who is averaging 14 points and 4.8 assists per game.
On the other side of this matchup is the Minnesota Lynx who lost Sylvia Fowles in their last game with a calf injury, Fowles is no doubt the best player on the Lynx and that is a big loss for a team that really relies on her to have success.
In the Lynx’s last game against the Las Vegas Aces, they struggled to score in the second quarter putting up only 15 points Even though the Lynx struggled to score in the last game, they are going to need to find other players to step up or this will end up being a long few weeks for them. Odyssey Sims is back with the squad now and they need him to step up in a big way. In the last game she played 15 minutes but only scored one point.
These are both teams who are banged up, but the Lynx have more players who can step up and that will be the difference. Look for Sims to step up, have a big game, and that will lead to a Lynx win and cover of the spread.