10:05 pm
August 18

Mystics @ Storm

Who will WIN this matchup?

Washington Mystics (22-14)

@ Seattle Storm (22-14)

 

Current odds:

Washington Mystics: (+160)

Seattle Storm: (-185)

 

• The spread for this game is Storm by 4 points.

• The fourth-seeded Seattle Storm welcome the No. 5 seed Washington Mystics for Game 1 of their WNBA playoff series on Thursday night. Seattle and Washington closed the regular season with matching records, but the Storm’s two wins over the Mystics earned them home-court advantage for the best-of-three series.

• Seattle won the first meeting on June 23, 85-71, but the two subsequent meetings were decided by five points: 82-77 in Seattle’s favor on July 30, and 78-75 for Washington on July 31.

• The Mystics’ win on July 31 was part of a 4-2 finish to their regular season, which also included a victory over the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces. While Washington built some momentum heading into the postseason, they received some potentially good news from an otherwise worrying development.

• Guard Natasha Cloud — boasting career-best season averages of 10.7 points and 7.0 assists per game — sustained an apparent knee injury in Sunday’s regular-season finale against Indiana. However, Mystics coach Mike Thibault told reporters Tuesday that Cloud participated in “about two-thirds” of the day’s practice.

• Cloud recorded an 11-point, 10-assist double-double in Washington’s last meeting with Seattle, helping the Mystics to weather a 23-point performance from the Storm’s Breanna Stewart.

• Stewart was revealed as the league’s 2022 Most Valuable Player on Monday — the second such honor of her career (2018) — after averaging an WNBA-best 21.8 points per game. Stewart posted double-doubles in three of the regular season’s final four games and scored 33-plus twice in the month of August.

5/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
Seattle Storm
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