Wings vs. Fever betting preview pits Paige Bueckers against Caitlin Clark amid WNBA distractions
The WNBA is taking center stage today for the betting market. If you’ve been following the sport, there have been some great stories. If you aren’t following the sport, you’re probably hearing about all the negativity. We had one player post about White privilege, we had another talk about transgender athletes, and both take away from the product on the court. I’ll try and bring us back by betting on it and getting some money from the Wings vs. Fever game.
The Dallas Wings were the team I expected to make a marked improvement this season, and so far, they are. Before the year started, I took the over for their wins, and with just three more wins, they will hit that over. Seeing as how they have another 10 games, I think we have a good shot at it, and I can likely always hedge. Especially considering they have seven home games remaining, so they should be the favorite in most of those.
The bad news here is that the Wings are playing some of their worst basketball of the season. They are just 1-5 over their past six games, and 3-6 over their past nine. A lot of this is likely because of injuries to key players. Azzi Fudd has been out, Alysha Clark and Jessica Shepard as well. Considering Shepard is their leading rebounder, that is quite an impact to lose. Most of them should be back either for this game or sooner. Even without them, Paige Bueckers is still the focal point of this team. Arike Ogunbowale is the other primary scorer for the squad, and she has put together a good campaign.
The Indiana Fever are a team that will continue to get all the attention. Not only will they get the attention because they have the most popular player on the planet on the team, but as a result of that, teams tend to give their full effort against Indiana. That should make the Fever better, but it can also be draining having to take on everyone’s best effort every night. There is more than enough talent on the team for the Fever to compete with any other team in the league.
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The attention, for the most part lately, has been off of Clark and onto Cunningham, who made the comment about transgender athletes. Then, later, she was flagrantly fouled by Dijionai Carrington, who then sent out a Threads message about White privilege. Then, their coach, Stephanie White, somewhat defended Carrington’s play (which I think is fine to do). It has just been a mess, and honestly the WNBA should be a public relations case study on what not to do. It is like none of them have any media training.
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All of this masks the fact that the Fever are playing solid basketball at the moment. They are a playoff team, and coming together at the right time. Distractions away from the court can leak into the locker room and be a problem. The Wings don’t have those, and are also getting healthy at the moment. Dallas getting their players back can position themselves to make a nice run and gain momentum before the postseason.
Most will look at this as a battle between Clark and Bueckers. Clark is great. I felt like I needed to put a full stop there. She can shoot, she is fan-friendly, a really good passer, all of that. However, she does turn the ball over far too much. It has to be cleaned up. She complains a lot. Bueckers is the better overall player. There is nothing she can’t do on the court. If you traded these two straight up, I don’t think the Wings are worse, but I do think the Fever get better. That doesn’t mean that Dallas will win this game; I think they lose this one. Indiana is playing well at home and has more continuity and momentum at the moment. In addition, I think Dallas just has too many people out. It will likely be a close battle, but give me the Fever to cover the short spread.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024