Sparks vs Sun
WNBA Basketball: Thursday, September 17th at 9:00 PM ET
The Line: -- Over/Under Click Here for the Latest Odds
The Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks face off on Thursday in the second round of the playoffs. At the IMG Academy in Florida. This is a single-elimination game with the loser going home, while the winning team will go on.
The Connecticut Sun have already had to play one playoff game to get to this point. The Sun’s first game of the playoffs was against the Chicago Sky, and after a competitive first half, a big third quarter by Connecticut allowed them to come away with a 94-81 victory. In that game the star of the show was Alyssa Thomas who put up 28 points and DeWanna Bonner also had a big game putting up 23 points and 12 rebounds. The Sun come into this game averaging 80.4 points per game while giving up 79.9 points per game. Bonner has been the best offensive player this season for the Sun averaging 19.7 points while shooting 42.2 percent from the field. Thomas has also found a lot of success averaging 15.5 points, 9.0 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field.
On the other side of this matchup is the Sparks who have played one less game and their last game came last Thursday against the Washington Mystics. In that last game the Sparks struggled to score putting up only 72 points and that led to the loss. The Sparks use a balanced attack on offense but in games they have struggled they have had issues with one player stepping.
On the season the Sparks are averaging 84.9 points per game while the defense is giving up 80.3 points per game. The best offensive player for the Lynx has been Candace Parker who is averaging 14.7 points while shooting 51 percent from the field.
The Sun looked good in the last game and they are going to keep this one close. The long layoff is going to hurt the Sparks, and the Sun will get the job done against the spread.