Exactly one week ago, the Dallas Wings clinched their second consecutive playoff berth win a 86-77 win over the New York Liberty. Marina Mabery led the Wings with a career-high 31 points.
Flash forward a week later and the Dallas Wings regular season is complete, as the Wings finished with a record of 18-18. That is Dallas’ first record of .500 or better since relocating to the Lone Star State in 2017.
The Wings’ 18-18 record was good for the sixth seed in the upcoming playoffs. They will be matched up with the three-seeded Connecticut Sun.
The first round schedule is as follows
Game 1 Thursday, August 18th, 7:00 PM CST ESPNU @Connecticut
Game 2 Sunday, August 21st, 11 AM CST ABC @ Connecticut
Game 3 ( If necessary) Wednesday, August 24th (Time TBD) @ Dallas
Dallas will be without their all-star Arike Ogunbowale for the entirety of the first round. However, the Wings have shown they can win without Ogunbowale as they took down both the Sky and the Aces in back-to-back games without her.
Forward Satou Sabally will also be an injury question mark for Dallas. The 6’4 German has missed several games with an ankle injury.
I think that the key to this series will be how efficiently Marina Mabery and Allisha Gray can score the basketball. We all know that Teaira McCowan will dominate in the paint but if Gray and Mabery can get going, that takes some of the defensive attention off of McCowan and adds complexity to the Wings’ offense.
Game one is going to be critical to this series. I think that if Dallas can steal the first game on the road in Connecticut then the Wings will have a good shot to take the series.
My Prediction Dallas in 3
I do think that Dallas will be able to steal game one on the road and will be able to take the win or take all game in Arlington.
Dallas is already beaten the Sun twice this season and I really like this matchup for the Wings. I do think that they will steal this series from the Sun.
