WNBA Friday: O'Sullivan picks Las Vegas Aces vs Minnesota Lynx, with the Aces facing the Storm on the horizon

Well, it looks like Los Angeles Sparks head coach Derek Fisher waited until there was less than a minute left before he finally read my piece from yesterday and, based on my pretty simple advice, finally asked one of his players to, you know, actually guard Leilani Mitchell for an entire possession. Maybe a Bettors Insider fan wandered down during a late timeout and let him take a look at their phone. Fisher must’ve waited because, for 39 minutes, Mitchell again buried a season’s worth of wide-open three-pointers within one game. (sigh)

But better late than never. Fisher put 2020 WNBA Second-Team All-Defense Brittney Sykes on Mitchell and Sykes' clamp-down defense counted when it mattered most, in time to give me a 4-2 night. I’m not going to wonder why he didn’t put Sykes on her any earlier, because my blood pressure is high enough. I’ll take 4-2.

Although, let’s put “‘Middles’ are stupid,” on the list along with “Parlays are stupid.”

Seattle O’Sullivan so far: 41-33-1

Las Vegas Aces at Minnesota Lynx, 8 pm EDT

The Pick: Las Vegas (-300)

I’m gonna keep it simple, here. This is Las Vegas’s last game before their all-important matchup Sunday with the Seattle Storm. Perhaps looking ahead to the Aces, the Storm hiccuped by dropping its last game to Washington. It may be a small thing, but I think the Aces don’t want to match that hiccup. Las Vegas is scoring 91.2 points per game, by far the best in the WNBA. Minnesota has Sylvia Fowles and Naphessa Collier; Collier is playing particularly well. But Las Vegas has Liz Cambage to combat Fowles, and Aces forward A’ja Wilson is the best player in the league right now. Las Vegas is on the road so I won’t lay the points, but this is the definition of a “take care of business game.” I think the Aces understand that.