Vegas Play of the Day: Minnesota of the WNBA at Phoenix

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Wednesday, June 18, 2014 | 10:15 a.m.

Here’s the latest installment of the Play of the Day, which uses odds from the South Point. Our three sports writers started with a $10,000 bankroll — fictional, of course.

Phoenix Mercury plus-3 vs. Minnesota in the WNBA: $770 to win $700 Phoenix beat Minnesota last weekend 80-72 to snap a 14-game losing streak against their Western Conference rivals. They’ll beat Minnesota again today.

Phoenix’s victory last weekend was at Minnesota. Today’s game is in Phoenix. And Minnesota played Tuesday in Los Angeles, meaning they’ll have back-to-back road games — a rarity in the WNBA, where teams usually aren’t scheduled on consecutive days.

One of the formulas used in handicapping men’s professional basketball is to wager against teams playing in back-to-back games. The same theory holds true in the WNBA.

Minnesota is again one of the league’s best teams, but star Maya Moore has struggled with her shooting as of late, and the Lynx are just 2-3 in their last five games.

Phoenix leads the WNBA in scoring at 84.1 points per game. If Phoenix wins today, it will move into a first place tie with Minnesota. I expect Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner to each have solid games, giving a maximum effort to prove they have the conference's best team.

Standings: Bern (32-23-1, $12,079), Keefer (25-31, $8,074), Brewer (18-29-3, $3,325)

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.