The Storm are hosting the Liberty on Thursday. On DraftKings Sportsbook, New York is favored by 11.5 points and this game carries a total of 170.5 points.
Let’s get into my pick and prediction for this contest.
Storm vs. Liberty Preview
The Storm were very close to snapping their 10-game losing streak Monday vs. the Wings, losing 112-110 to Dallas in overtime. Seattle has now embarrassingly lost 11 straight games while no other team in the WNBA currently has lost multiple games in a row.
The Storm are tied with the Sun for the worst record in the league at 3-15, but Seattle does sit one spot ahead of Connecticut in net rating. Dominque Malonga and Natasha Hiedeman have been a two-woman show the Storm, and they did everything they could in Monday’s loss to the Wings. Malonga was incredible, scoring a career-high and franchise-high 37 points while Hiedeman posted a 21-point and 11-assist double, which is her four straight effort of 19+ points. Awa Fam and Zai Cooke also both added 18 points apiece, which was encouraging, as the Storm struggled to find offense outside of Malonga and Hiedeman.
The Storm’s offense is their main issue, ranking second-to-last in defensive rating, but maybe they can carry over the momentum from Monday and stay hot in this matchup vs. the Liberty. New York’s defense is the No.3 rated defense in the league, though, so this isn’t an easy matchup. The Liberty are 12-6, rank third in net rating and they are coming off an impressive 11-point road win over the defending champion Aces on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, Satou Sabally exited this game after getting hit in the face and she is out tonight with a head injury. Sabally suffered a scary concussion in the WNBA Finals last season, so her sitting tonight is not surprising at all.
After she exited Tuesday, Sabrina Ionescu finally showed some life, scoring a season-high 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting with a 24.1% usage rate. Before this, the guard looked like a shell of herself, scoring no more than 11 points in her first five starts of the season. Seeing Ionescu finally do something notable is huge news for New York and she should be in store for a big role tonight, as not only is Sabally out, but Breanna Stewart will be rested.
Stewart and Sabally lead the Liberty in usage rate at 26.3% and 24.8%, respectively, so their absences create a huge void. With both Stewart and Sabally off the floor this season, Ionescu’s usage skyrockets 20 percentage points to 40%. With the massive volume, Ionescu should score a ton tonight and Jonquel Jones should garner an expanded role as well. However, New York as a team is likely suffer on both ends of the floor with Stewart and Sabally missing, and their absences very well could make this a competitive affair with the struggling Storm. Stewart hasn’t missed any games this season, but the Liberty went just 5-8 with her inactive last season.
Storm vs. Liberty Pick, Best Bet
No Stewart and Sabally is a tough break for the Liberty, but Ionescu, Jones and company should still be able to get the job done and defeat the Storm. That being said, the Storm should play with some confidence after nearly beating the Wings and this should be a competitive game, so I like backing Seattle to cover this 8.5-point spread on this home floor.
This season, Storm are 6-3 ATS at home while the Liberty are 3-5 ATS on the road.
