The Women’s NBA regular season is now over and the play-offs are in full swing as the top four teams from the Eastern and the Western Conferences battle it out to make it through to the five-match WNBA Finals. Minnesota Lynx are the strong favourites to become champions for the third time in five years, but they won’t have it all their own way, either in the Western Conference Finals or – if they make it – the WNBA Finals themselves.
Here we bring you the latest betting tips, predictions and live betting odds for the WNBA outright winner betting market, and given that we’ve been tipping Minnesota for some months, we see no reason to change our tune now. The side coached by Cheryl Reeve and managed by Glen Taylor had an outstanding 22-12 record in the Western Conference in the regular season, and they beat the Los Angeles Sparks to advance to the conference finals. Priced at best odds of just 5/4 with Paddy Power in the outright betting, the Lynx look like they are on the charge and determined to go all the way.
Minnesota will be up against the Phoenix Mercury in the conference finals. Mercury finished second in the Western Conference behind Minnesota with a respectable 20-14 record. They then shocked Tulsa 2-0 in the playoffs, winning 88-55 and 91-67 to exhibit their clear superiority over their opponents. With the extra rest afforded by the whitewash and the dynamic manner of their victories, Phoenix might have it in them to pull off a surprise against the Lynx, and if you think they can do it, then you are as well to back them to win the WNBA Finals too at nice odds of 11/5, also with Paddy Power. They are, of course, the current champions and they will not want to relinquish their title without putting up a decent fight, but we predict that Minnesota will just have the edge, not least because they will have home court advantage in games one and three due to their higher seeding. But who will Lynx face in the five-match finals series?
Which leads us to the Eastern Conference Finals, which will be contested by Indiana Fever and New York Liberty. Indiana are the only side from the Eastern Conference to be crowned WNBA champions in the last six years and they’ll be desperate to fly the flag for the east once again. But they’ll be up against it given that New York finished the regular season with the best record in the country, 23 wins and 11 defeats.
New York had to come from a game down in their play-offs against the Washington Mystics, and they have built up a head of steam which we feel will see them through to the WNBA finals. They might just have enough to give the Lynx a run for their money and at best odds of 5/1 with Betfair in the outright winner market, they might be worth consideration.
We’ll be giving the Fever a swerve though, despite being available at top odds of 7/1 to become champions again. They have a defensive frailty that was exposed repeatedly by the better sides in the regular season and against New York we feel they simply won’t keep things tight enough to give their offence the chance to earn the win.
If we do end up with the mouth-wateringly exciting match-up between Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty for the WNBA Finals series we will all be in for a real treat as the basketball on display is likely to be electric. We do feel that Minnesota have the players, the experience and the determination to gain the overall victory, however, and we predict they will win the final series 3-1, which is worth a punt in itself. For now though, our main WNBA outright winner betting tip is simply to back the Lynx at 5/4 with Paddy Power.