WNBA Futures: Season Resumes + Impact of Olympic Fatigue on Games

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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. We got Carlin Gay with us. We're going to

00:06hit the WNBA games coming up on Thursday. It's going to be a fun race to the finish,

00:11a strange NBA season, or WNBA season, of course, with the stoppage here. Also, Carlin did bet

00:17the U.S. men's team and women's team to win the gold. He bet $10,000 and he won $3. Congrats,

00:23Carlin, on those odds. Nobody wanted, you know, it's like, I saw some people on social

00:28media saying, oh, I picked Team USA from the beginning. I'm like, great job. They were

00:33such big favorites on both sides. There was no winning that. I mean, it was obviously

00:37great moments to see, I think, you know, especially from Steph there at the end. What can you

00:42say about women's USA basketball? I mean, they've been fantastic. But, you know, needless

00:46to say, it's good to get the WNBA and get these players back going. I guess we could

00:50pivot to that. And I would ask you, do you think that their play in the Olympics will

00:54affect anything we see moving forward? Less playing time, anything like bettable or anything

00:59like that? Any clue? Yeah, I think early on, you're going to start to see a little bit

01:03of sluggish play, you know, because, you know, coming off of the Olympic Games, you're going

01:08to have some fatigue for some of the star players. But then you're also going to have

01:11that, you know, basketball shape is very different than working out in the gym. You need to be

01:15playing basketball to stay in sort of basketball rhythm. So I feel like the first couple of

01:20games for each team is going to be sloppy. Who's less sloppy is going to be, you know,

01:25a team that takes advantage and gains a couple positions in the standings that are very close

01:29right now. And, you know, New York credits of them, they're head and shoulders above

01:33everybody else. And they took care of business for the first 25 games of the regular season.

01:37And I think that's going to only help them with that little bit of cushion, just in case

01:41they stub their toe coming out the gates here in the second half of the year. So knowing

01:45that Sabrina, you asked who was on the team, knowing that Brianna Stewart was on a team,

01:48both of them playing major minutes and having to come back to their club squads and stay

01:53in that rhythm and not worry about, you know, getting tired legs and being overseas and

01:58having to travel back. I'm sure they partied. You know, I wouldn't put it past them from

02:02partying. I wouldn't go metal. I would. So that's going to have to get out of their system

02:06and then get back to business. It's tough, right? They're all human. They are elite athletes,

02:11but there is a tough sort of hangover championship hangover that they're going to have to go

02:14through as we start the second half of the year. Yeah. And it's yeah, it's it's funny

02:19to remember that. Yeah. I mean, these these girls definitely had a great time at the end

02:23of that. And now they got to get back on the court, get back to the USA, play Thursday.

02:27Interesting. We saw the Indiana Fever now 11 and 15 on the season after that tough start.

02:31So maybe a shot for them. But their third right there, a couple of games behind Connecticut,

02:36a couple one game ahead of Chicago. Let's focus on the Liberty here for a minute. As

02:40you mentioned, they've been the best team in the WNBA. Their win total is thirty one

02:43and a half. And to go over that, it's minus 146. But as you said, I mean, maybe there

02:49is a little bit of a hangover coming out in order to hit this number. They're really going

02:53to have to play great basketball down the stretch to to hit it, I think. Yeah, they

02:57are. And, you know, the sluggish part of things is going to happen more so on the offensive

03:01end for me. Defensively, they've been terrific all year. And that's what's really going to

03:05carry them through. And, you know, they are the second best defensive team in the league

03:10right now, only behind Minnesota. And, you know, when you put the defensive unit that

03:14they have and the way that they've been able to be cohesive on that side of the floor and

03:18couple that in with the fact that they have players that can take advantage of their mismatches

03:23whenever they have them. And John Quayle Jones and Brianna Stewart was, to me, the second

03:27best player in the WNBA. Sabrina Unescu, if she's hitting her three, she's tough to beat.

03:33So they do have players individually who can get it done. And but as a unit defensively,

03:38they've been really impressive to me. So I think they are going to go over that win

03:42total. No question about it for me. And it's all going to be on the back of their defense.

03:46Sandy Brondello, who is actually the Australian national team head coach. She's coming in

03:50with a good attitude. She has that mojo going. She knows what it took to get done at the

03:55Olympic Games and was able to put a defensive unit in place to do that. She has that with

03:59the Liberty here in the WNBA. And I think they'll be able to go over that win total

04:03pretty easily. All right. Now let's get over to the Western Conference, where the story

04:07is the Las Vegas Aces getting off to such a good start. But all of a sudden, teams have

04:12caught them, Carlin, in the standings. They are not they were not playing their best basketball

04:16just before the break. Minnesota and Seattle now both ahead of them in the standings. And

04:21as of right now, their total is twenty seven and a half. I guess you'll have to tell me

04:26and inform me what happened here with Las Vegas. Were they just simply running out of

04:30steam here before the break or are they just not as good as we thought at the beginning

04:33of the season? Listen, they're every bit as good as we thought at the beginning of

04:37the season. The problem is here is that they're all human. And you've seen this, you know,

04:41covering sports your whole life, Craig. Like there is a mental sort of toughness that needs

04:45to happen with teams to do it year in, year out and go through these championship runs.

04:51They've been in the finals the last two years. Like they had to go through these these grueling

04:56long seasons and the offseason. Yes. While it's there, it's not long enough. Right. It's

05:01not long enough to recover and to be there mentally sharp for an entire regular season

05:06and then go to another level once we get to the playoffs and an even higher level once

05:10you get to the finals, that is extremely tough. That's a lot of pressure. As we said off the

05:14top, like these these these women are human, right? Like they are human beings at the end

05:18of the day. At some point, there's going to be a dip in sort of the mental aspect of the

05:24game. And I think that's what happened. You know, they got caught in a couple of nights

05:26where they probably shouldn't have lost games because they didn't come up with that intensity.

05:31But in the second half of the season, we might see much of the same until we get to the playoffs,

05:34right? Because a lot of their team, their players, Wilson, Kelsey Plum, they were already

05:39at, you know, had one eye on the regular season, one eye on the Olympics, trying to win a medal.

05:42Right now, coming back to the team, going to be a little tougher to kind of figure things

05:46out. So I would say right around that win total, I would actually go under personally

05:50for that win total, that win total. But I wouldn't take away from what they could do

05:54down the stretch in an opportunity to win the championship. But the regular season to

05:59them at this point, where they are as a team, probably not as important as it would be to

06:03someone like Minnesota.

06:05Yep. And we see this in the NBA as well. We've seen it for years. These super teams that

06:09don't necessarily care that much about the regular season, although the WNBA season, of

06:13course, a little shorter. The Aces, Carla, are still the favorite to win the WNBA

06:18championship at plus 155. But this is as close as the Liberty has been all season long,

06:23going into the second half at plus 160. Oddsmakers are telling us it's one of those two

06:28teams. Do you believe that?

06:30Yeah, it's probably one of those two teams, but I'm always going to be looking for value. I

06:34like Minnesota a lot. The best defensive team in the WNBA defense normally wins

06:38championships. They have a star in a piece of Collier who's coming off a great Olympic

06:42Games. She should carry that momentum into the back after the regular season. Give me

06:46Minnesota. That's where I'm putting my money to close things out.

06:49All right. Great stuff, Carlin. Thanks again for all your coverage of the Olympics. And of

06:52course, we'll be catching up soon talking some WNBA. And before you know it, NBA as well.

06:57Thanks again for coming on.

06:58Can't wait.

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