2023 WNBA Finals Predictions

After an exciting and at times dramatic season, the WNBA Finals are here!  While the journey was quite fun, it ultimately was the teams that everyone expected and most people hoped for entering the season:  the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty (I hoped for Connecticut to make it, but that’s due to my fandom).  Both of them are super teams in drastically different fashions, as Las Vegas has been more organically built while New York was newly made into a super team through a massive trade and two huge free agency signings.  I genuinely believe this could be an interesting series without a definitive answer of who is better.

Entering the playoffs, I thought that New York held a pretty clear advantage in the series due to their depth, individual matchups, and a lack of wing defenders in Vegas.  That said, I have shifted my opinion on that.  While New York’s depth is much stronger than that of Vegas, I think this is less of a concern now that New York has largely gone with their starters as the playoffs progressed.  I expect Vegas will play 6 players and that New York will follow a similar suit.  I also think that Vegas isn’t as outmatched as I thought they would be initially.  I think Vegas could have Kiah Stokes and A’ja Wilson handle Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones combination with fewer issues than I initially stated.  I also think that I undersold Chelsea Gray’s ability to defend wings initially, so I think that it’s not as much of a disadvantage as I made it out to sound.  Ultimately, if New York is going to win, it will be because some combination of Betnijah Laney, Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot thrive; if Vegas wins, it will likely be due to Jackie Young looking like a superstar, Alysha Clark being the perfect 6th woman (she was the 6th Woman of the Year, which was a no brainer to me), and Kiah Stokes not being so much of an offensive liability.  The superstars are going to be superstars, but it will still be fun to see Stewart, Wilson, Gray, Sabrina Ionescu, and Kelsey Plum, since all of them are so exciting to watch.

Ultimately, I still believe either team could win the series.  That said, I would guess that either Vegas sweeps New York or that it is an extremely close series.  Due to their inconsistencies and lack of focus when shots are missing in the playoffs, I do not believe that New York will sweep Vegas and would be floored if that happened.  I would predict that Vegas wins in 5 games ultimately, but this might be the least certain I’ve ever felt during a Finals matchup.

Prediction:  Las Vegas wins 3-2

 

 

Who do you think will win the Finals?  What are you excited to see?  Let me know in the comments!

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