{"id":654885,"date":"2026-05-20T18:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654885\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:20:15","slug":"wnba-first-basket-scorers-picks-wednesday-5-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654885\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA First Basket Scorers &#038; Picks: Wednesday (5\/20)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">We are officially in full swing with the WNBA season. It&#8217;s shaping up to be a fun one, with the expansion teams and arguably the most talent the league has ever seen. <\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">WNBA first-basket props are some of the best ways to get in on the action, as you don&#8217;t have to sweat the entire game before it cashes. Of course, these are high-variance, long odds similar to first-touchdown bets in football, but that is why the odds allow for a nice payout when you get one right. Over a long sample size, the risk gets rewarded. <\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">Remember to shop around, as odds vary widely across books. Remember, this is for first-point scorers, so free throws also count. We hit another first-point bet last week and are looking to stay hot tonight. Here are the best first-basket bets for Wednesday, May 20.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\"><a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/www.bettingpros.com\/appDownload\/?tag=bp-articles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Go premium to view top prop bets based on Cover Probability, Expected Value &amp; Star Rating &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\"><a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/www.bettingpros.com\/nba\/playoffs\/premium\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><img id=\"article-content__img\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0x0.webp\" alt=\"NBA Premium Discount\" width=\"1470\" height=\"650\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-320933 size-full\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s Best WNBA First Basket Scorers &amp; Bets<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">Last Time: 1-2 | Season: 2-4 (+9.35U). Odds courtesy of\u00a0<a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/btng.pro\/tI80wM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Portland Fire vs. Indiana Fever<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">We start in Indianapolis with the Fire traveling to Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Fever are favored by 13.5 points with the total around 179.5. Both teams come in at 2-2. The Fever are coming off an 11-point win over Seattle, as Caitlin Clark continues her dominance. Portland has been holding serve so far, working through its expanded young roster.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">The tip should be Aliyah Boston at 6\u20195 going up against 6&#8217;4 Luisa Geiselsoder. After a shaky start to the season and missing the last bout with an injury, Boston is back in action and should be a big part of the Fever&#8217;s game plan. She\u2019s been the Fever\u2019s first half-court target consistently, and they need to get her going. Portland&#8217;s defense has also been second-worst in the league to start the year, so I trust Indiana&#8217;s ability to capitalize on their first possession.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">If Portland wins the tip, it&#8217;s tough to see a clear early option. Geiselsoder is more of a pick-and-pop center than a true rim threat, which means Portland\u2019s offense likely starts on the perimeter with Carla Leite or Bridget Carleton, but neither is a designed first-bucket target. For Indiana, I may be playing the narrative a bit much, and it&#8217;s a juiced price, but this just feels like the game where Boston shows everyone that she&#8217;s back, and does it early.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">Pick: <a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/www.bettingpros.com\/wnba\/props\/aliyah-boston\/points\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aliyah Boston<\/a> (<a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/www.fanduel.com\/sbk-affiliate-agnostic?btag=a_44785b_16c_&amp;siteid=44785\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">+550<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Dallas Wings vs. Chicago Sky<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">In Chicago, we have the Sky home opener, as Paige Bueckers and company pay a visit to Wintrust Arena as slight road favorites with a total just shy of 170 points. Chicago has been a bit surprising early on with their 3-1 start to the season, but they just lost their leading scorer, Rickea Jackson, to a torn ACL for the rest of the year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">For the tip, I&#8217;m assuming it will be in favor of Chicago with 6&#8217;7 Kamilla Cardoso at the helm over either Alanna Smith or Jessica Shepard for Dallas, both at 6&#8217;4. I know it&#8217;s only been four games, but Cardoso has taken the first shot for Chicago in two of their four games. I don&#8217;t expect any different tonight. <\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">Tyler Marsh has been running Chicago\u2019s early half-court action through Cardoso, and she&#8217;s been used at a high clip. It also helps that Dallas&#8217; defense has been a bottom-four unit to start the year and has allowed the fourth-most points in the paint.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">Even if Dallas wins the tip or holds off Chicago to start, it&#8217;s hard to see where the Wings go with it early. Obviously, Bueckers is an option, but she&#8217;s only taken the team&#8217;s first shot once in their four games. It&#8217;s been spread out, and even last year, it was quite even across the board for who was putting up looks early. I&#8217;ll eat the chalk here and feel good about it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">Pick: <a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/www.bettingpros.com\/wnba\/props\/kamilla-cardoso\/points\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kamilla Cardoso<\/a> (<a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/www.fanduel.com\/sbk-affiliate-agnostic?btag=a_44785b_16c_&amp;siteid=44785\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">+370<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"article-content__anchor \" href=\"https:\/\/www.bettingpros.com\/appDownload\/?tag=bp-articles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\"><img id=\"article-content__img\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778755631_717_0x0.webp\" alt=\"BettingPros App 3.0\" width=\"1470\" height=\"650\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-300808 size-full\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"article-content__paragraph\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are officially in full swing with the WNBA season. It&#8217;s shaping up to be a fun one,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-654885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}