{"id":191424,"date":"2025-10-05T13:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/191424\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T13:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:59:11","slug":"wnba-finals-picks-predictions-today-mercury-vs-aces-game-2-best-bets-from-proven-experts-for-sunday-oct-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/191424\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Finals picks, predictions today: Mercury vs. Aces Game 2 best bets from proven experts for Sunday, Oct. 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Las Vegas Aces<\/a> will try to take a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Phoenix Mercury<\/a> when the two teams square off in Game 2 of the 2025 WNBA Finals. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. ET, and the game will air on ESPN. Vegas took Game 1 89-86 thanks to a 22-point fourth quarter and 21 points from both A’Ja Wilson<\/a> and Dana Evans<\/a>. Kahleah Cooper led the Mercury with 21 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you’re a fan of WNBA betting<\/a> and are interested in placing a wager on Sunday’s Mercury vs. Aces Game 2 clash, you should first see what WNBA experts Calvin Wetzel and Aaron Barzilai have locked in for this game.<\/p>\n

Bet the WNBA Finals at DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a>, where new users get $200 in bonus bets with a winning $5 wager:<\/p>\n

Barzilai is a Ph.D. from Stanford who served as Director of Basketball Analytics for the Philadelphia 76ers. Five years ago, he founded HerHoopStats.com — a groundbreaking website that unlocks insights about the women’s game. Wetzel, the site’s lead betting writer, incorporates his mathematical background and strong knowledge of women’s hoops to turn the site’s prediction model into picks. Wetzel and Barzilai went 202-111-2 (+57.9 units) during the 2024 WNBA season and posted a 147-88-1 (+47.1 units) during the 2024-25 NCAA season. In the 2023 WNBA season, they finished 238-185-1 (+29.5 units).<\/p>\n

Here are Wetzel and Barzilai’s best bets for Phoenix vs. Las Vegas on Sunday:<\/p>\n

Mercury vs. Aces Game 2 picks:<\/p>\n

Pick WNBA at Underdog Fantasy<\/a>, where new users who play $5 now get $100 in site credits with promo code CBSSPORTS2 in select states:<\/p>\n

Mercury +3.5<\/p>\n

We get the best of both worlds in this one: The side that already had value \u2013 and that cashed in Game 1 \u2013 still lost and thus will be the beneficiary of zig-zag theory in Game 2. Teams trailing in the series come out even more motivated and tend to perform better after a loss.<\/p>\n

Phoenix spent much of Game 1 with the lead but couldn’t quite close it out for the victory. That doesn’t help the Mercury in the series, but it does help us in running back their spread for Game 2. We got a last-second shot in Game 1, and we’re getting a full possession in Game 2 as well, meaning if it again comes down to a last-second shot, we’ll cash regardless of who takes the shot or whether it goes in.<\/p>\n

Alyssa Thomas Over 14.5 points<\/p>\n

I had been riding Alyssa Thomas Overs throughout the playoffs at 14.5 or even 15.5, but then the books gave us 16.5 in Game 1 of the Finals. That line was about right, so I stayed off, but for some reason we’re back to 14.5 for Game 2 despite Thomas clearing this (albeit barely with 15) in Game 1.<\/p>\n

Thomas is a consistent, high-floor player, so her lower alt lines such as 10+ and 12+ are great parlay legs to use in SGPs as well. But a line of 14.5 is low enough that I’m comfortable with taking the base here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Las Vegas Aces will try to take a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Phoenix Mercury when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4662,4652,6359,49,48,38507,3460,94091,94092,51362,3461,82,630,17929,8601,46844,19197,94089,93615,94090,8602,17928,81490,17931],"class_list":{"0":"post-191424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-aja-wilson","9":"tag-alyssa-thomas","10":"tag-betting","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-dana-evans","14":"tag-las-vegas-aces","15":"tag-mercury-aces-bets","16":"tag-mercury-aces-expert-picks","17":"tag-mercury-aces-odds","18":"tag-phoenix-mercury","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-wnba","21":"tag-wnba-bets","22":"tag-wnba-betting","23":"tag-wnba-expert-bets","24":"tag-wnba-expert-picks","25":"tag-wnba-finals-odds","26":"tag-wnba-finals-picks","27":"tag-wnba-finals-predictions","28":"tag-wnba-gambling","29":"tag-wnba-odds","30":"tag-wnba-playoff-odds","31":"tag-wnba-predictions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}