It’s a tumultuous time in the Midwest if you’re a WNBA team. Both the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever have had disappointing years for very different reasons. Now, at the height of their respective dramas, the two face off with the season winding down.
The Fever are 11.5-point favorites at home and hold -800 odds on the Moneyline at DraftKings Sportsbook. The total is set at 161 points. Let’s take a look at the best bets and predictions for this Sky-Fever matchup.
Sky vs. Fever prediction, pick
The Chicago Sky are not having fun. It’s bad enough that they’re well outside the playoff picture and made no meaningful improvements from last season. Now their star player, Angel Reese, is publicly feuding with management. And she seems justified in doing so.
It’s tough to look at this any differently than the way Reese sees it. Chicago traded the No. 3 pick in the 2025 Draft (the pick that became Sonia Citron, a rookie All-Star) for Ariel Atkins, an acquisition that has not panned out. Atkins can leave in free agency and is likely to do so. Then they traded back into the draft, acquiring the 11th pick from the Minnesota Lynx for Chicago’s 2026 pick, which is locked into the second-best lottery odds. It’s some brutal mismanagement that has superseded the play on the court.
There won’t be any chance for Reese to prove her point on Friday. After picking up her eighth technical of the season, Angel will be automatically suspended for this game. That means both halves of one of the best player rivalries in the league will be out.
On Thursday, Caitlin Clark finally confirmed what we’ve all been thinking: her season is over. That means she will have missed 31 of 44 games in her second WNBA season. It’s not how the Fever hoped the year would go, pushing in some chips to contend. While they did net a Commissioner’s Cup Championship, being squarely on the playoff bubble this late in the year is less than ideal.
The sheer volume of injuries are weighing down the Fever. In addition to Clark, they’ll be missing Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, Chloe Bibby, and Aari McDonald for the rest of the year. It’s a difficult formula to overcome, and they still need to fend off the LA Sparks, who are 1.5 games behind Indiana for the eighth and final playoff seed.
It isn’t easy to trust either of these teams, even with a large spread. But with the Fever motivated while the Sky circle the drain, I’m counting on Indiana to pull off an important victory.
