Clark Will Improve Offensively Against Liberty
Liberty vs Fever Odds: Lots Of Points Projected
On Thursday’s WNBA schedule, the New York Liberty will take on the Indiana Fever in a standalone matchup featured on Amazon’s PRIME Video.
The Liberty escaped with an 85-80 win over the Washington Mystics on the road after an encouraging fourth quarter. The Liberty trailed heading into the fourth quarter, but they ended the game with a 26-13 fourth quarter to win by five.
On the other hand, the Indiana Fever were crushed 92-71 by the Connecticut Sun on the road. With one loss, the Fever are already in last place in the WNBA standings with Caitlin Clark on the roster.
Clark has a lot of expectations heading into the WNBA. While she added 20 points, she also shot 5-for-15 in the first game of her WNBA career and turned the ball over ten times. While Clark will adapt and still be one of the best WNBA players this season, her play against the Sun proved to the casuals how much talent is actually in the WNBA.
The WNBA odds for this game have the Liberty at -6.5 (-105), the total at 172.5, and the over juiced to -115.
Let’s look deeper at the Liberty vs Fever odds to see if Caitlin Clark and the Fever can add their first win of the season.
Liberty vs Fever
Liberty vs Fever
Records: New York Liberty (1-0), Washington Mystics (0-1)
When: Thursday, May 16, 7:00 p.m. ET
Location: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
Stream: Prime Video
Liberty vs Fever Odds & Trends
The last time the Fever defeated the Liberty was on May 13, 2022, in an overtime win on the road, as six-point underdogs. Since then, the Liberty have won six consecutive games against the Fever and have won against the spread in five of those six games.
On the other hand, the recent WNBA odds head-to-head between the Liberty and Fever have gone over the total in five consecutive meetings.
The Liberty Found A Way
As 11.5-point favorites on the road, the New York Liberty were expected to put away the Washington Mystics easily in the first regular season game of the year. However, New York found itself trailing ahead into the fourth quarter as double-digit favorites. Thanks to a huge fourth quarter, the Liberty escaped with a win and are standing at 1-0 to begin the year.
The Liberty shot 47.1% from the field and added two more rebounds than the Mystics. However, New York hit just 28.6% from downtown and turned the ball over 20 times. On paper, the Liberty performed well. They even got to the foul line more and added the same amount of points off turnovers despite earning six fewer turnovers in the game.
We’ll see more of the fourth quarter from the Liberty in the future.
Give It Time!
Caitlin Clark had an underwhelming debut in the WNBA against the Connecticut Sun. She shot 5-for-15 from the field and added four three-pointers on 11 attempts. However, she didn’t add a single rebound in 32 minutes and tallied three assists in the game.
Clark doesn’t have the ball in her hands every possession like she did at Iowa. She’s always playing against much more difficult competition. Of course, Clark has all the potential in the world. But it’ll take time.
Think about it. She ultimately finished playing college basketball in early April and is already playing in the WNBA in mid-May. They don’t get an off-season to learn and prepare like the men. She played two pre-season games, had no summer league matchups, and barely had time to bond with her new teammates.
Hard Schedule For Indiana
The Fever have the Connecticut Sun and New York Liberty for the season’s first four games. That’s a brutal schedule draw for the Fever, who picked first overall after a lackluster season last year. Meanwhile, the Liberty and Sun are ultimately the second and third-best teams in the league.
That’s not ideal for Caitlin Clark who is already shouldering a lot of pressure with a group of players that aren’t nearly as good as some of the other teams.
The Fever still shot a 48% field goal percentage against Connecticut, shooting 53.3% from inside the arc and 40% from three. They also currently lead the WNBA in effective field goal percentage after one game after shooting 56% against the Sun.
In addition, Indiana scored 1.22 points per scoring attempt in the first game and had a free throw rate of 21.1%.
Meanwhile, the Liberty scored 85 points in their debut game against the Mystics. New York added 1.13 points per scoring attempt and shot an effective field goal percentage of 52.9%. While the Liberty shot 28.2% from downtown in Game 1, don’t expect that to continue.
Last year, New York led the WNBA in three-point percentage, hitting 37.3% from deep. The Liberty also nailed 47.2% from inside the arc last season, which led the WNBA.
Therefore, the Over 172.5 is our best bet for this game after reviewing the Liberty vs Fever odds.
