UK: 18+ USA: 21+ | Begambleaware.org | T&Cs apply | Play Responsibly
The 2023 WNBA season has reached it’s business end with the two semifinals looming on the agenda next. After 40 regular season battles for each team and tense quarterfinal duels the top 4 seeded sides reached the last four. To find out all this and everything else you need to know regarding the WNBA semifinals schedule, as well as, our predictions and where to watch read on.
WNBA semifinals preview
Contents
Who will make it to the WNBA Final? Can the Aces do it again? Will Liberty triumph for the first time? Are the Suns ready for revenge? Will the Wings’ size and rebound dominance give them an edge?
New York Liberty (2) vs Connecticut Sun (3)
The first WNBA semifinal sees the second-seed New York Liberty take on the third-seed Connecticut Sun. The Sun lost the WNBA Final last season but are part of the last four for the fifth consecutive year and they are seasoned warriors.
New York Liberty is a team on the rise though. They won the Commissioner’s Cup back in August after defeating the reigning WNBA champions Las Vegas Aces in the final. The Liberty also dominated the regular-season series vs the Suns and beat them four times. So, can the more experienced Suns find a way to reach the Finals for the second year running? Or is it Liberty time this year? Our prediction for this matchup is below.
Las Vegas Aces (1) vs Dallas Wings (4)
The defending WNBA champions Las Vegas Aces are trying to become the first team since the LA Sharks in 2001 and 2002 to win back-to-back titles. The fact that no franchise has managed to do that in over 20 years shows how hard it would be. Still, the Aces had an impressive 36-4 regular season and they swept their quarterfinal series.
However, the fourth-seed Dallas Wings also swept their quarterfinal and they are the tallest team in the WNBA. This helped them to make it very hard for the Aces’ big star A’ja Wilson. However, the Aces have many other weapons with which to hurt opponents and they still dominated.
The Aces come as the heavy favourites in this matchup but can the Wings find a way to cause an upset? Our prediction for this semifinal can be found below.
WNBA semifinals schedule and where to watch
The WNBA semifinals are played to the best-of-five rules, so the first team to record three wins progress through to the WNBA Final. Here is the schedule and where to watch each match:
2023 WNBA semifinals schedule:
Sunday, Sept. 24 (Game 1)
Connecticut at New York: 1 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. GMT (ESPN)
Dallas at Las Vegas: 5 p.m. ET / 10 p.m. GMT (ESPN2)
Tuesday, Sept. 26 (Game 2)
Connecticut at New York: 8 p.m. / 1 a.m. GMT (ESPN)
Dallas at Las Vegas: 10 p.m. / 3 a.m. GMT (ESPN)
Friday, Sept. 29 (Game 3)
New York at Connecticut: 7:30 p.m. / 0:30 a.m. GMT (ESPN2)
Las Vegas at Dallas: 9:30 p.m. / 2:30 a.m. GMT (ESPN2)
Sunday, Oct. 1 (Game 4 if necessary)
New York at Connecticut: 3 p.m. / 8 p.m. GMT (ABC)
Las Vegas at Dallas: TBD
WNBA semifinals our predictions
New York Liberty (2) vs Connecticut Sun (3)
The Liberty are for the first time in the playoffs since 2015. They haven’t reached the WNBA Finals since 2002. Now they take on the Connecticut Suns, who were the beating finalists last year and have made it to the last four in all of the last five seasons.
The experience is with the Suns, but the Liberty are a team on a mission this season and they showed that with their triumph in August in the Commissioner’s Cup. Also, Liberty swept the regular-season series vs the Suns 4-0.
The big star of the Suns and key player is Alyssa Thomas. However, she is facing an awful matchup in this duel and her struggles in all 4 regular-season clashes showed that. In four games against New York this season, Thomas averaged 11.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, six assists and 3.5 turnovers on 32.7% shooting from the field.
The Liberty have a huge height advantage inside the paint too. Their star centre Jonquel Jones averaged 19 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game on 61.9% shooting in the quarterfinals. We expected similar numbers from her now as she can exploit her mismatch. When Jones is so impactful it is almost impossible to beat Liberty.
Combine that with the fact that the Suns don’t have enough size in the paint and this is why we pick New York Liberty to win this semifinal in 4 and with this reach their first WNBA Finals in over two decades.
Las Vegas Aces (1) vs Dallas Wings (4)
The Aces won 36 out of 40 regular-season matches thanks to their depth and consistency. They also swept through their quarterfinal and came into the last four full of confidence. Up against them are the Dallas Wings who are making their first playoff appearance since 2009. The Wings had the third-best offensive rating in the league this season, scoring 106.9 points per 100 possessions. They dominated on the offensive glass and simply crushed most of their opponents inside the paint with their size.
The size of the Wings disrupted Las Vegas’ big star A’ja Wilson during the regular season. Wilson shot 57% from 2s for the regular season but in the series vs the Wings, she shot only 45%. However, Kelsey Plum has a very favourable matchup in this duel and she led the Aces to triumphs in this series vs the Wings averaging 23.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists on 47.8/45.8/93.3 shooting.
The Wing simply have nobody to guard Plum. Also, the main strength of the Wings is their offensive rebounding – led the league with 36.9% offensive rebounds on their missed shots. However, they are now up against the best defensive rebounding team in the entire league the Aces (73.3%). So, if the Wings can’t rebound on the offensive glass they will be in serious trouble as the Aces also led the league in fast-break points.
Taking all that into consideration we go for a clean 3-0 win for the Las Vegas Aces in this matchup.
Subscribe to Punditfeed on Google News for all the latest updates from the world of sports!
