Plum Will Light Up Sky With 3s

Sky vs. Sparks, 4:00 ET

The WNBA gets a lot of headlines nowadays. This isn't exactly a great thing, but the old adage of "no publicity is bad publicity" might be the right way to look at things here. Sure most of the headlines are about one player, and that's fine - ride whatever wave you can. The other headlines are pretty negative - the players are not good, the refs are terrible, the league is messing up their shot, racial undertones, sexual orientation stuff - there is a lot to unpack with the WNBA. Luckily for me and you, we just care about the results of the games, and I only care about the Sky taking on the Sparks.

The Sky have put together a very bad season. In the last two years, they have made three lottery picks and right now show a 4-10 record. The main issue with the team overall is that they don't seem to have a true identity. Angel Reese, who gets a lot more crap than she really deserves, is a high motor player, but very inefficient. She can't be your offense. Kamilla Cardoso is a solid big, but doesn't seem to be in enough shape to play as much as she should. Their best veteran point guard went down with an injury. Ariel Atkins is playing as good as she can for the club, but they are getting very little else. If they are smart, they tank a couple of years and wait for Juju Watkins to be available to them in the draft. Currently, however, the team plays no defense and has a terrible offense. So.. you know, no big issue. 

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The Sparks aren't much better. They have scattered a few wins for the year in between long losing streaks. The team is just 5-11 coming into today, but did just have a win over the Fever who played without Caitlin Clark. They also don't play much defense, and their entire offense revolves around Kelsey Plum. Plum, who has also made more gifs and headlines for off the court stuff than on the court action, is a talented scorer from two levels. She is a good shooter, can drive, and is a decent enough playmaker. She should feast in this game against a Sky team that doesn't have good enough guards to keep up with her penetration or ability to create a shot. She is only shooting 33.7% from deep this year, but she could probably improve on that percentage in this one. 

The game is likely to be a win for the Sparks. I know they are just getting back from a road trip, which I don't love. However, this Sky team is a disaster. The play here is to just take Kelsey Plum over her point total. She is going to get enough volume for shots, and she is the key player for a team that doesn't have many other options. Back Plum over her points here. I also think the Sparks cover the spread, but have less confidence there. 

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