WNBA Playoffs Sunday: After Taurasi schooled him, O'Sullivan apologizes, picks Sun at Sky, Aces at Mercury

Seattle O’Sullivan so far: 140-112-1

Connecticut Sun at Chicago Sky, 1 pm Eastern

The Pick: Connecticut -192, Connecticut -4.5 (-106)

Clearly, Connecticut read my column on Thursday and used it as motivation to play up to their usual high level, right? My reverse psychology worked like a…ah, who am I kidding. But Thursday did put to bed the concerns I had about the Sun’s backcourt, and although it took one game more than I thought, Chicago finally looked a bit tired. The key going forward is defense. If the Sun continue to play defense as they did on Thursday (and like they have all year except for Tuesday), they should be able to take control of this series.

Las Vegas Aces at Phoenix Mercury, 3 pm Eastern

The Pick: Las Vegas -128, Las Vegas -1.5 (-112)

Phoenix won Thursday’s game 117-91, a fact I didn’t know until I just looked at the box score now because I turned the game off in disgust right after halftime. Diana Taurasi had 37 points on Thursday, which makes my thoughts on her that morning some of the biggest idiocy ever committed to the internet. My apologies. I’m still picking the Aces today. They’re the better team, they’re not going to shoot 25% from 3-point land again, and they’re not going to let the Mercury shoot 53.8% from 3-point land again (although mainly, that was Taurasi again; she shot 8-11 from the arc). Phoenix was on fire on Thursday; in addition to three-pointers, they shot 60.6% from the field. I’m betting it was an anomaly. The Aces win in a dogfight today.