Connecticut at Dallas

Dallas has spent the last week finding new ways to lose games it should control. A stunning home loss to Atlanta on Wednesday was followed by an even tougher one Friday in Washington, blowing a tie with two and a half minutes left and falling 81-75 despite Paige Bueckers scoring 17 of her 23 points in a furious second-half push. Three of the Wings' last four losses have come by a combined eight points, every one decided in the final minutes. We banked the total staying south of the number when Dallas hosted Washington on Friday. Connecticut closes a six-game road trip tonight still without Brittney Griner for a fourth straight game, and that shorthanded frontcourt has nobody left to protect the rim. Dallas gets clean, easy looks inside behind Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale, which pushes this one toward a track meet regardless of who wins. But this Dallas team hasn't shown it can put a game away lately, and Connecticut is 3-7 over its last 10, not the disaster its record suggests. These two split 169 points in their first meeting back on July 2, an 86-83 Dallas win that finished just under where tonight's number sits. Take Connecticut with the points as my WNBA Game of the Week tonight, and take the OVER right alongside it.