Las Vegas at Minnesota

We were on the Sparks getting a big number in Minnesota on Thursday, and it cashed with room to spare when Los Angeles won outright, 89-82, snapping a Lynx winning streak that had reached ten. One bad night at home doesn't undo what this team is. Minnesota owns the best net rating in the league at plus-11.1 per 100 possessions. The defense ranks second in efficiency and allows 83.5 points a night, third-fewest in the WNBA. Las Vegas sits fourth in net rating at plus-6.6 and fifth defensively, giving up 86.5. The schedule does the rest. This is the Aces' fourth road game in seven days, the front end of a back-to-back that ends in New York on Sunday, and they played forty-five minutes at Indiana on Thursday night. Tip is 1:00 Eastern, which is ten in the morning on a Las Vegas body clock. The Aces are 13-4 away from home, so this is not a bad road team. It's a good one dropped into the ugliest scheduling window the league hands out. Minnesota is 4-1 since Napheesa Collier came back from ankle surgery, and the number on this ticket already sits a point better than where the board has moved. Minnesota is the right side on the spread this afternoon, and I don't expect this one to need the number.