New York at Atlanta

Atlanta has looked the part of the East's best team lately: a 32-point demolition of Washington, then a convincing win over Chicago on Tuesday. But the Dream's recent opponents have been flattered by how comfortable those wins looked. Washington is 4-6. Chicago is scoring 80 points a night. New York is a different category. The Liberty are 8-4, averaging 87.3 per game while holding opponents to 82.2, the fourth-best defensive mark in the WNBA. They lead the league in free-throw percentage at 86.1%, meaning any defensive pressure Atlanta applies translates directly to points at the other end. For quality-of-competition context: when Indiana hosted Atlanta earlier this month, the Fever won 83-71. New York beat that same Indiana squad 83-75 on the road the following weekend. The Dream are real, but this is a four-point number in a conference title-race matchup between two evenly matched teams. Side with the Liberty tonight.