Both the Storm and Mercury are improved teams this season. Seattle, though, has the higher ceiling with long-time Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith joining the Storm this season to go with holdovers Jewell Loyd, the league's top scorer last year, and Ezi Magbegor, one of the better centers in the WNBA.

After a slow start with Diggins-Smith getting the rust off from having sat out last season, the Storm are one of the hottest teams in the league winning eight of their last nine games while going 7-2 ATS. Diggins-Smith is 15-for-29 shooting from the floor in her last two games.

Phoenix is much better than its 9-31 mark of last season. But the Mercury are not in Seattle's class. Phoenix is 3-6 in its last nine games. The Mercury rank fifth offensively, but are third-from-last defensively. They have allowed at least 80 points in 11 of their 13 games.