All Aces: Wilson, team overcome long odds during 17-game win streak
The Aces skyrocketed to 40-1 long shots to win the WNBA title on Aug. 2 after they were embarrassed in a 111-58 home loss to the Minnesota Lynx.
“That’s the highest we’ve had them to win the title,” Westgate SuperBook WNBA oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said. “You don’t expect a team that loses like that to have title aspirations.”
The 53-point defeat fueled an amazing turnaround by the Aces. They have not lost since that game and are now the +250 second choice to win the WNBA championship behind the Lynx, who are the -125 favorites.
The defending WNBA champion New York Liberty have drifted to the +750 third choice after two-time league MVP Breanna Stewart left Sunday’s playoff opener with a knee injury.
The Aces take a 17-game winning streak into Game 2 of their best-of-three first-round playoff series against the Seattle Storm on Tuesday. They are 6½-point favorites in their bid to match the 2001 Los Angeles Sparks for the longest winning streak in league history at 18 games.
“They’re obviously playing terrific and they’ve got the (No.) 2 seed, so if they get past Seattle, they’ll have home court against the Atlanta-Indiana winner. They’ll be favored in that series,” Sherman said. “If the Aces play Minnesota (in the WNBA Finals), they’d be an underdog in that series, and that will be a seven-game series for the first time.
“I think it will be a tough hill to get over against Minnesota, but I think the Aces should be able to handle their business leading up to that point.”
Aces have books in hole
Bettors have cashed on the Aces as they’ve gone 13-4 against the spread during their win streak, including Sunday’s 102-77 beatdown of the Storm as 6-point home favorites.
The Aces also are a liability for the Westgate, which took a $200 wager to win $7,000 on the hometown team to win it all at 35-1. It also took a $100 bet to win $3,000 at 30-1.
“We lose on them just because early in the season people were betting them and, as their odds went up, people were betting them,” Sherman said.
The Liberty opened as +175 favorites, followed by the Lynx at +350 and the Aces at 4-1.
MVP
Aces star center and reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson was a 100-1 long shot Aug. 7 to win a record fourth league MVP award before her odds quickly plummeted.
“Within a week, she was down to 16-1 because they kept winning and she was producing her numbers like last year,” Sherman said. “There was a rapid (descent) on those odds.”
Lynx star forward Napheesa Collier was still the odds-on -900 MVP favorite and Wilson the 6-1 second choice heading into their Sept. 4 matchup at T-Mobile Arena. But the MVP odds dropped to near pick’em after the Aces beat the Lynx 97-87 behind Wilson’s 31 points and eight rebounds. Collier had only 12 points in the loss.
“It really swayed the perception off of that game because the Aces hadn’t beaten them this season until that game,” Sherman said.
The favorite had flipped completely by the regular-season finale, as Wilson was -900 and Collier was the 6-1 second pick. Wilson all but sealed her fourth MVP award by putting up 23 points and 19 rebounds to lead the Aces over the Sparks for their 16th straight win Sept. 11.
The Westgate will win if Wilson wins as she didn’t draw much action at long odds, other than a $29 wager to win $2,320 at 80-1.
“Right now, our best position is A’ja winning it, just because I was really ahead of the market when she was dropping,” Sherman said. “I feel like an idiot not betting it at the time. When there was 50-1 out there, I was at 25-1.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.