The Phoenix Mercury enter the home stretch of the 2021 WNBA regular season with the league’s fifth-best record but present a unique opportunity for sports betting in Arizona.
That’s because the Mercury, who are 12-10 this season and in the midst of a three-game win streak, present a lot of value on the Arizona sports betting apps.
Three sportsbooks currently give the Mercury the seventh-best odds to win the 2021 WNBA Title.
FanDuel Arizona Sportsbook has them at +2500. BetMGM Arizona has them at +1800 and PointsBet Sportsbook Arizona has them at +2000.
The other reason to buy into the Mercury right now is because of two-time WNBA MVP winner, Diana Taurasi’s health. Taurasi has averaged 15.5 points, 4.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game since missing 12 games with a sternum fracture.
It appears as if the Mercury are back on track, with Taurasi complimenting forward Brittney Griner and guard Skylar Diggins-Smith in coach Sandy Brondello’s offense.
Griner leads all Mercury players in scoring (20.8 PPG) and rebounding (9.7 RPG), and Diggins-Smith is averaging 18.2 points and five assists per game.
A Look At The Remaining Schedule
Another element that might prove beneficial to the Mercury is that, of the team’s remaining nine regular season contests, all but three come against teams with records that are .500 or worse, meaning they’ll likely have a shot at climbing the league standings before year’s end.
Phoenix is currently 4.5 games behind the Las Vegas Aces, who are in first place in the association’s six-team Western Conference, at 17-6.
The two will square off at downtown Phoenix’s Footprint Center on Sept. 19, in the Mercury’s regular-season finale.
Before that, Taurasi and company will play the Atlanta Dream and New York Liberty twice, with games against the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever as well.
The only other teams with winning records that the Mercury face between now and season’s end are the Connecticut Sun (17-6) and Seattle Storm (16-7).
Phoenix’s manageable regular season schedule should bolster the team’s championship odds, meaning bettors would be wise to jump on them now.
WNBA Championship Odds
The teams ahead of Phoenix include the Aces (+210 on FanDuel/PointsBet, +200 on BetMGM), the Storm (+220 on FanDuel/PointsBet, +250 on BetMGM), the Sun (+500 on FanDuel/PointsBet/BetMGM), the Minnesota Lynx (+700 on FanDuel/PointsBet/BetMGM), the Sky (+1700 on FanDuel, +1400 PointsBet and +1200 on BetMGM) and the Washington Mystics (+1500 on FanDuel, +1600 on PointsBet and +1000 on BetMGM).
The Mercury continue their quest for a fourth WNBA championship with a road game against the Dream at 9 a.m. Arizona time (noon Eastern) in Atlanta, then two games against the Liberty next week, on Wednesday and Friday.
The eight-team 2021 WNBA Playoffs tips off on Sept. 23.
