Seattle Storm vs Dallas Wings Prediction, Picks, and Odds: June 17

The Dallas Wings are staking their claim as one of the WNBA’s emerging teams and they’ll try to climb back above .500 this afternoon against the struggling Seattle Storm.

While the Wings didn’t show much of their upside in Wednesday’s miserable 79-61 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks, Dallas had won its prior five home games this season behind the sharpshooting duo of Satou Sabally and Arike Ogunbowale.

The Storm offense fared little better than the Wings last time out in an ugly 96-63 blowout against the unstoppable Las Vegas Aces, leaving Seattle 2-7 in a challenging start to the post-Breanna Stewart era.

Take a closer look at this Western Conference showdown in our free Storm vs Wings WNBA picks and predictions for June 17.

Storm vs Wings best odds

Storm vs Wings picks and predictions

For any team to even make the Aces sweat in the West, a high-powered offense is essential — and, on their best nights, the Wings can turn it on at that end of the floor. 

With Satou Sabally healthy and Arike Ogunbowale among the league’s top scorers, Dallas feels like a team that’s more dangerous than a 5-5 record suggests, and the Storm will have their hands full here trying to keep up with the hosts’ fast pace.

There should be some easy pickings for Dallas this afternoon against a Storm defense that gave up 96 points on Thursday. The props for both of the Wings’ primary scorers are attractive but I’m leaning towards Ogunbowale, who scored 26 points against Seattle earlier this year and is averaging a career-high 37 minutes a night.

Ogunbowale was out of sync on Wednesday in a cold 5-for-16 shooting night, but she can heat up in a hurry, as she showed in a 35-point outburst against the Phoenix Mercury last week. Free from L.A.’s swarming D, she’s now facing a Storm defense that can’t throw the same level of defensive stoppers at her.

The Storm are allowing opponents to shoot 46% from the field this season (the worst mark in the WNBA) and I see that paving the way for Ogunbowale to deliver a lights-out performance.

My best bet: Arike Ogunbowale Over 22.5 points (-115 at bet365)

Storm vs Wings spread and Over/Under analysis

The Wings have made College Park Center a tough place for opposing teams this season and they enter as WNBA odds favorites to get the W here and deepen the Storm’s misery. Still, it’s been tricky to peg which version of this Dallas team will show up this month — the hosts started June with two losses, rebounded with a pair of wins, and now enter today’s matchup on the heels of consecutive setbacks.

While the Ogunbowale and Sabally one-two punch has been the driving force for the Wings (3-6-1 ATS), they’re getting contributions from their other starters too, with Kalani Brown dropping 21 points against the Sparks and Natasha Howard averaging 15 points a game.

On paper, a visit from Seattle feels like a gift from the schedule-makers, but I’m treading carefully, as the Storm are 5-3-1 ATS this season despite seven losses from nine games. As bad as things looked on Thursday when Seattle was outscored 49-26 in the second half against the Aces, five of the visitors’ seven losses this season were by eight points or fewer. 

Ezi Magbegor finished with 23 points against Las Vegas and has stepped up as a key secondary scorer, with Kia Nurse still finding her way after an ACL injury kept her out last season.

I expect both teams to bounce back here after cold shooting earlier in the week, in part because neither defense has shown the ability to get stops consistently. Dallas and Seattle are both in the bottom half of the league in points allowed per game.

Setting aside a subpar shooting night on Wednesday, this Wings offense has been in eye-catching form this season, ranking fourth in the league in points per game (83.8) and first in free-throw percentage (86.6%). In contrast, the Storm are rock bottom with 73.4 points a night — and that goes a long way to explaining this afternoon’s line being as high as 8.5 at some sportsbooks.

Both offenses dominated in the teams’ prior meeting this year back in late May, with Dallas hanging on for a 95-91 win, but Seattle needed 30 points from star guard Jewell Loyd just to make it competitive. Even so, the Wings held Loyd to 7-for-18 shooting.

Storm vs Wings betting trend to know

While I see both teams bouncing back from offensive no-shows this week, it’s worth noting that the Under has hit in the Storm’s last five outings and in five of the Wings’ last six games. Find more WNBA betting trends for Storm vs. Wings.

Storm vs Wings game info

Storm vs Wings key injuries

Storm: None.
Wings: Crystal Dangerfield G (Probable), Lou Lopez Senechal G (Out), Diamond DeShields G (Out).
Find our latest WNBA injury reports.

Pages related to this topic