Pick and Roll: Liberty and Lynx meet for WNBA Championship
Published
And then there were two.
The end of a historic WNBA season is upon us, and all that remains is the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx fighting for a championship.
Before we dive into the betting markets for the series, I have to take a moment to victory lap the performance of Brianne Spiker in the postseason.
Spiker opened the playoffs by going a perfect 4-0 in the opening round with her series predictions. A parlay of all four winners paid +112.
She followed that up in the second round, going perfect again, cashing another parlay at +145 and narrowly missed hitting a 20-1 exact series outcome parlay with her prediction of each series to end in four games with the Liberty and Lynx advancing.
Spiker has been on the ball all year, and if you haven’t been reading you’ve missed out on some incredible analysis and a boatload of winners.
Brianne has already put together a series preview for the website. Give it a read.
Meanwhile, here, we’ll look at what FanDuel has to offer on the series and get one final pick from Spiker to see if she can cap off a perfect playoff run.
Let’s get to the action.
No. 1 New York Liberty vs. No. 2 Minnesota Lynx
| WNBA: Playoff Series Betting Odds | New York | Minnesota |
|---|---|---|
| Series Odds | -290 | +235 |
| G1/Series Double | -200 | +480 |
| Series Sweep | +265 | +1500 |
| Season Series | 1 | 2 |
Job’s Not Finished
Yerrrrrr.
There has been one goal for the Liberty all season: Win a championship.
New York hasn't missed a beat all season and has been the team to beat from the season's first game.
The Liberty have dominated the postseason, sweeping their opening-round series and outscoring the Atlanta Dream by 23 points. They then got revenge in the second round, taking down Las Vegas in four games after the Aces beat them in the finals last year.
Breanna Stewart at +110 is the favourite to win WNBA Finals MVP. The 30-year-old is averaging 20 points per game in the postseason, adding 8.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists a night.
A two-time WNBA Champion, Stewart is seeking third Finals MVP, something only Cynthia Cooper has accomplished when she led the Houston Comets to four straight championships from 1997-2000, winning MVP all four years.
When asked about the “thoughts moving through her mind” while walking off the court following New York’s series win over the Aces, Stewart had this to say: “That we haven’t done anything yet. This was a tough series, an emotional series for a number of different reasons but we’re going to the Finals, we’re hosting games one and two… were ready to go.”
Stewart added that the main feeling is just being unsatisfied.
Behind Stewart is Sabrina Ionescu at +200 to win Finals MVP. The 26-year-old is having the best postseason of her young career, averaging playoff-highs in points (20.7) and assists (5.2) while adding 5.2 total rebounds per game.
Ionescu enters this series looking to improve on a disappointing 2023 Final, in which she was held to 8.7 points per game after averaging 16.3 in the opening two rounds.
Can Collier own the Libs?
The star of the 2024 playoffs continues to be Napheesa Collier.
Collier had an incredible regular season, finishing second in MVP voting with 20.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.
While she fell short of MVP, Collier added to her trophy cabinet by winning defensive player of the year. She averaged 1.9 steals and 1.4 blocks per game and was just one of six players to average more than one steal and one block per game this year.
She has seen an uptick in production nearly across the board in the playoffs, averaging 27.1 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 2 blocks per game.
After scoring 38 and 42 points in the opening round, Collier was held in check over the first two games of the second round with 19 and nine points. However, as the series got tighter, Collier got better, scoring at least 26 points in the final three games and leading the Lynx in points all three games.
Courtney Williams could be an X-factor for the Lynx if they’re going to win this series. The 30-year-old is back in the finals for the third time, her first since 2022 with Connecticut.
In nine WNBA Finals games, Williams has scored 15 or more points five times, well above her career average of 12 points per game.
After averaging 9.3 points per game in her opening three games of the playoffs, she has stepped her game up, scoring 17 per game over Minnesota’s last four games.
Canadian Bridget Carleton continues to be a key contributor to this team, setting a new post-season career high with 17 points in the opening game of the second round.