WNBA Reigning Champs Liberty Dominate Early Season Games

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00:00The second weekend of this WNBA regular season is about to be here and coming our way over this

00:06holiday weekend throughout Memorial Day. And JY, of course, much of the story, sadly,

00:12despite how great the product has been early on of this WNBA season, has been commentary on

00:17commentary on commentary on the actual game of basketball. We'll leave that to the side for

00:23right now and focus on the actual sport here on the early line to end out this week. Let's talk

00:29some of the action and the results so far. The New York Liberty, the reigning WNBA champs,

00:34have looked very dominant in their opening two games of this season. Double-digit win

00:39last Saturday afternoon in Barclays against the Las Vegas Aces. More than a 20-point victory

00:45last night on the road in Chicago against the Sky. So the Liberty, the reigning champs who

00:51entered this year as the title favorites, off to a perfect 2-0 start. What have the

00:56Liberty shown you so far, JY, here in 2025? That they may have made the most smart, shrewd

01:03signing in the WNBA offseason, and that's Natasha Cloud. Natasha Cloud, that is a, was a thorn in the

01:11Liberty side when she played for the Washington Mystics. It's someone that allows, with Benajalini

01:15Hamilton out, it allows them to bring in another rugged guard, but also a really good sneaky

01:22distributor of the ball. So now Leona Fibich can, can go to, Fibich can go into the front court

01:28to play with Stewie and John Quill Jones, and it sets themselves up nicely, but also getting

01:32Maureen, Maureen Yohannes back from France to play with Naira Sabley off the bench, and Burke

01:39gives the Liberty a solid eight-woman rotation that's playing really good basketball, and it sets up, Ben,

01:46a huge ratings game set up for tomorrow, 1 p.m. CBS, Liberty versus the Fever in Indiana. I'm sure there'll be

01:57a lot of eyes watching that matchup as the best team in the W goes against, let's be honest,

02:03the most important player in the league. The Fever, a two-and-a-half point home underdog tomorrow

02:09in that game in Indianapolis against New York. New York, Indiana, a couple of big basketball games

02:15throughout this weekend. You mentioned Caitlin Clark, JY, as we look at her number to win WNBA

02:21MVP, now in minus money. Now, I love CeCe as much as the next person, and she did deliver a triple

02:28double in her first game of the year against Chicago, the third of her WNBA career, their third

02:34in her 41st career regular season game. Nobody had ever done that in WNBA history. She had a 27.11

02:42dime performance in her second game, albeit in a loss for the Fever against the much-improved

02:47Atlanta Dream Team, and a victory last night for Indiana on the road in the A. But it wasn't

02:53the greatest night for Clark so far in her WNBA career. Her first game, collegiately or in the W,

02:59without a made three since 2022. She was 0 of 5 from deep last night. JY, are you surprised,

03:08slash, is it warranted for Caitlin Clark to already be a slight minus-money favorite to win WNBA MVP?

03:14It's not warranted, but I'm not surprised. Why? Because you have general people running to the

03:25window with the biggest player in the sport. It doesn't matter what she can do. She's going to

03:31have the most eyeballs on it. But if you pull up those odds, I mean, it's shocking that a player

03:37like Nafisha Collier, who could be on the best team, if not New York, is at plus 230. Asia Wilson,

03:43who I think, personally, is the best player in the world at 4-1. And Brianna Stewart,

03:48who's gotten off to a pretty good start, is at 45-1. The problem with Stewie is between Stewie,

03:54Inescu, Jones, and Cloud, they're just going to all cancel each other out because either one

04:00could go off to a great start. The sneaky pick are two players. Kelsey Plum, who's going to have the

04:06shot volume with the L.A. Sparks. And if you could find her, Salto Sabley. But here's the thing.

04:12You've got to get your team to the top four of the WNBA for me to be considered to be MVP candidate.

04:19So if you're looking for major plus money, Plum, Sabley could be two players you can look at

04:25if their teams can make a charge into the top four by the end of the year.

04:28Sabley now on the Phoenix Mercury, along with Alyssa Thomas. Phoenix off to a perfect 2-0 start.

04:34You mentioned Naveesa Collier, who is averaging better than 28 points per game and six boards,

04:39and her Minnesota Lynx, who were the runner-up last year in the WNBA Finals, to the New York Liberty,

04:44off to a perfect 3-0 start. Best record so far, three games, three wins in the WNBA.

04:50This is not a shot at Caitlin Clark, who should be a front-runner for the award,

04:54but already minus money, is a slightly interesting odds perspective on the WNBA MVP hardware.

05:01Big moment for Indiana tomorrow in their fourth game of the year.

05:05They are a WNBA title contender. They can make a statement against the reigning champs in the Liberty.

05:10J.Y., a fadeaway to the holiday weekend, shall we?

05:14Everybody have a great Memorial Day weekend.

05:16Peace!

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