WNBA · Final · Playoffs round 2, game 1 · first game of the seriesupdated 17:32 UTC

Phoenix Mercury vs Minnesota Lynx

at Minnesota Lynx

MIN expected to win by about 9 · both teams together expected to score about 159.5 points · odds to win: PHO 4.10, MIN 1.26

Game odds from Pinnacle (the bookmaker we use as the reference), Sun 20:55 UTC

PHO 69 – MIN 82

Final

We had no picks in this game; every posted line is still scored below.

Getting a better price than most bookmakers offer for the same line is the only thing on this page that, measured over many past bets, made money; player rates are context, not tips.

Explore every player and prop

How to read this page

A pick is a player line, for example Under 13.5 points, that we published before the game together with the price we found for it. We do not take bets.
Odds are shown in the decimal format: 1.93 means you get back 1.93 for every 1 staked, so a higher number pays more. The American format (−108 means risk 108 to win 100; +111 means risk 100 to win 111) appears only in the Data log at the bottom of the page.
'Posted at' is the price we found when we published the pick; 'better' is a higher price for the same line at another bookmaker. Taking the better price is the one thing on this page that, measured over many past bets, made money.
'Market puts Under at 48.5%' is the chance implied by all bookmakers' prices together, with their built-in margin removed. Pinnacle is a bookmaker whose prices are widely treated as the most accurate reference, so it is the one we compare against.
A player's rate is how often that player has gone over the line this season, for example over in 41 of 78 games (52.6%), with a likely range such as 32–52%: fewer games means a wider range, and under 10 games we show no rate word at all.
'Past record stronger than the price' means the whole likely range sits above the chance the bookmakers' price implies; 'weaker' means below; 'agrees with the price' means the price sits inside the range, which is the usual case. None of these is a tip.
'Not measurable' is the usual honest answer: too few games to tell a real difference from chance.
'What could go wrong' lists the facts that can change a line: who is out, whether the starting lineup is confirmed, expected playing time (RotoWire's estimate, typically off by about 4 minutes), rest, and how many bookmakers price each line.
After the final, every pick is checked against the official stats and compared with the last price before the game started, the market's most informed price; getting a better price than that is the fairest test of a pick, whether or not it won. A tie means the player landed exactly on the line and the stake is returned; lines ending in .5 cannot tie.
Results are given for every 1 staked: 'would have returned +0.93' means a stake of 1 would have come back with 0.93 in profit. We do not stake anything; the record is what a stake of 1 on each pick would have done. Our record counts a smaller stake when the price advantage was small.
S beside a name marks an expected starter. Times are shown in your device's time zone; our data is recorded in US Eastern Time (ET). Team codes are the league's three-letter abbreviations.
'Your prediction' lets you pick Over or Under on any line before the game starts; we check your predictions the same way and keep your record, and one game of results proves nothing.
Team codes on this page: PHO = Phoenix Mercury, MIN = Minnesota Lynx.

Picks and prices

Odds of at least 1.70 only · highest odds first · results checked

A line is the number a bookmaker sets, e.g. 13.5 points; Over means more than it, Under fewer. Odds 1.93 pay 1.93 for every 1 staked. 'Posted at' is the price we found when we published the pick; after the game it is compared with the last price before the start.

Picks for this game are not posted yet. The players below are up to date.

Why the better price matters

In our past tests, simply taking the highest price offered for a line earned more than any of our own forecasts did.

In that test (25 Aug 2026), taking the best price returned about 2.8 more for every 100 staked than the price we posted did.

The players

5 players checked · 2 whose past record points the other way from the bookmakers' price · 0 out · 0 with too few games

Rate: the share of this season's games in which the player finished above tonight's line. S beside a name marks an expected starter.

Against this opponent, 2 of 5 players have performed clearly differently and 1 shows a slight hint · No starting lineup yet; showing every player with a line · playoff series: too few games to measure a difference

Context only A player's rate describes the past; it is not a tip and has not been tested as one. Expected minutes come from RotoWire, a lineup news service.

Sign in to see each player's rate The numbers below (for example 15.5 points) are the lines the bookmakers actually posted.

Phoenix Mercuryplaying MIN

Alyssa Thomas · minutes unknown

points 15.5 → 18 actual

Kahleah Copper · minutes unknown

3-pointers 1.5 → 2 actual

Minnesota Lynxplaying PHO

Courtney Williams · minutes unknown

3-pointers 1.5 → 1 actual

Kayla McBride · minutes unknown

3-pointers 2.5 → 4 actual

Napheesa Collier · minutes unknown

3-pointers 1.5 → 2 actual

What could go wrong

updated 17:32 UTC

Who is out

Nobody is listed as injured on either team.

Lineups

Expected starting lineup, not yet confirmed

Playing time

No playing-time estimates yet.

Our check: these minute estimates (RotoWire) are typically off by about 4 minutes.

Rest

Both teams had at least two days between their last game and this one.

Bookmakers

The reference bookmaker, Pinnacle, offers 0 of the 69 lines; the rest rely on other bookmakers.

Every pick is priced by at least 2 bookmakers.

When a player is out, that player's lines are removed: in our past results this helped. Guessing which teammates benefit was also tested and lost money, so nothing else on this page is adjusted for it.

What happened

In 0 of 2 cases where a player's past record disagreed with the bookmakers' price, the past record was right in this game. One game proves nothing.

FinalWe had no picks in this game · every posted line is still scored below

5 other players with a posted line

Kayla McBride · 3-pointers 2.5 → 4 · 1.5 above the line · played 37.9 min · BetOnline.ag odds: Over 2.13, Under 1.68

Kahleah Copper · 3-pointers 1.5 → 2 · 0.5 above the line · played 36.9 min · BetOnline.ag odds: Over 1.64, Under 2.20

Courtney Williams · 3-pointers 1.5 → 1 · 0.5 below the line · played 33.2 min · BetOnline.ag odds: Over 2.78, Under 1.42

Napheesa Collier · 3-pointers 1.5 → 2 · 0.5 above the line · played 34.4 min · BetOnline.ag odds: Over 2.61, Under 1.47

Alyssa Thomas · points 15.5 → 18 · 2.5 above the line · played 37.3 min · BetOnline.ag odds: Over 1.98, Under 1.79

Each prediction is recorded as if you had staked 1 at the line you saw, and your record is shown here. One game tells you nothing yet.

More context

Head to head

MIN vs PHO · last 26 games · MIN leads · MIN record 20–6 · average score 87.5–79.3 · MIN has won by 8.2 on average

Team results are background only; they say nothing about any single player's line.

13 Jul · PHO 100 at MIN 104MIN won

1 Jun · MIN 111 at PHO 77MIN won

12 May · MIN 88 at PHO 84MIN won

28 Sep · MIN 81 at PHO 86MIN lost

26 Sep · MIN 76 at PHO 84MIN lost

23 Sep · PHO 89 at MIN 83MIN lost

What each defense gives up per game

PHO gives up87.6 points · 34.0 rebounds · 21.5 assists · 9.7 three-pointers scored against them · opponents make 46.4% of shots · 36.1% from three-point range · 12.9 opponent turnovers

MIN gives up83.7 points · 33.2 rebounds · 20.4 assists · 9.3 three-pointers scored against them · opponents make 43.5% of shots · 32.9% from three-point range · 14.5 opponent turnovers

Defense by position

How much this is worth

Defense-by-position numbers are mostly random from season to season; shown for context only. We tested it: a team's defense-by-position numbers from one half of the season do not predict the other half, so treat them as noise.

PHO gives up 87.6 points a game · 8th of 15 · league average 87.0about league average

MIN gives up 83.7 points a game · 3rd of 15 · league average 87.0−3.4 vs average

How the game odds moved

Pinnacle first had MIN expected to win by 9, expected total 159.5 (Sun 20:55 UTC) and had not changed it by Sun 20:55 UTC.

The odds at the top of the page are the latest we have, from every bookmaker on file; this is one bookmaker's own history.

Data log (technical)

Technical detail for auditing; the plain version is above. Internal ids and formula names print here only.

Line-shopping measurement: project_conditional_minutes_refuted

Defense-by-position measurement: split-half reliability r = -0.033 across 12 cells (7 of 12 negative) against a shuffle null of 0.000; a placebo using the wrong position family reproduced the effect to within 0.12pp · project_dvp_blowout_gate_refuted · 2026-08-26

Our picks, raw · 0

No raw pick rows for this game.

Checked results, raw (basketball-stats shorthand) · 0

No graded rows for this game.

Data fetches · 48

sds rest/team (away)ok 200 · 29 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-19)ok 200 · 34 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-20)ok 200 · 36 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-18)ok 200 · 37 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-17)ok 200 · 39 ms

sds rest/team (home)ok 200 · 42 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-08)ok 200 · 44 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-09)ok 200 · 46 ms

grading picks/nightlyok 200 · 46 ms

sds history (h2h)ok · 65 ms

sds defense/team (away)ok 200 · 65 ms

sds defense/team (home)ok 200 · 66 ms

sds analytics opponent_defense (away)ok 200 · 67 ms

sds analytics opponent_defense (home)ok 200 · 67 ms

sds schedule/team (meetings)ok · 72 ms

sds games/{id}ok 200 · 133 ms

sds lineups/{id}ok 200 · 145 ms

sds injuries/date/{date}ok 200 · 147 ms

sds players/team (away)ok 200 · 7 ms

sds players/team (home)ok 200 · 10 ms

grading clv/picksok 200 · 116 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-13)ok 200 · 171 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-16)ok 200 · 181 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-11)ok 200 · 185 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-15)ok 200 · 187 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-14)ok 200 · 188 ms

sds games/{id}/boxscoreok 200 · 193 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-12)ok 200 · 197 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-07)ok 200 · 198 ms

dh lineups/{id}/deltaok 200 · 199 ms

sds games/date (2025-09-10)ok 200 · 206 ms

grading verdict/boardok 200 · 272 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 13 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 17 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 54 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (three_pointers_made)ok 200 · 180 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 181 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (three_pointers_made)ok 200 · 185 ms

sds analytics player_vs_teamok 200 · 187 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (three_pointers_made)ok 200 · 203 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (three_pointers_made)ok 200 · 207 ms

sds analytics player_vs_line (points)ok 200 · 209 ms

odds game timelineok 200 · 670 ms

odds player timeline (threes)ok 200 · 675 ms

odds player timeline (threes)ok 200 · 701 ms

odds player timeline (threes)ok 200 · 710 ms

odds player timeline (points)ok 200 · 760 ms

odds player timeline (threes)ok 200 · 772 ms

Classic view →

The older, longer version of this page is still available as the classic view. Nothing there is tracked in our results; this page is.