Morning Coffee: Liberty Stun Sky In WNBA Playoffs Opener

The WNBA playoffs got started with an absolute stunner in Chicago last night.

The defending champion Chicago Sky were in good shape through three quarters, but Sabrina Ionescu and Natasha Howard had other plans for the defending champs in the fourth quarter, leading the New York Liberty to a 98-91 upset win.

While the Liberty were taking care of business in Chicago, the New York Yankees were on the ropes again back home in the Bronx staring down a potential sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays.

That changed with one swing of the bat from Josh Donaldson.

The bringer of rain hit a walk-off grand slam in extra innings as the Yankees snapped a three-game slide with an 8-7 win over the Rays.

Now they’ll welcome the Toronto Blue Jays to town for another AL East showdown beginning tonight.

Meanwhile, my FanDuel Best Bet cashed again with a Same Game Parlay that paid +495 at FanDuel.

After a 3-0 start to the week, we’ll look to stay hot with another winner to go with our coffee this morning.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Thursday August 18^th, 2022.

Liberty Stun Fire In WNBA Playoffs Opener

The first two games of the WNBA playoffs featured some lopsided spreads at FanDuel.

The Liberty could be found as high as +410 on the money line for their opener against Chicago.

Trailing in the fourth quarter, Ionescu and Howard led New York on a 13-0 run in the final 3:20 to steal Game 1.

That duo combined for 44 points in the upset victory.

Can they do it again in Game 2 on Saturday?

FanDuel made Chicago an 8.5-point favourite for the rematch.

Meanwhile, It was a much different story in the late game, as the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces rolled to a 79-63 win over the Phoenix Mercury as a 14.5-point favourite at FanDuel.

Las Vegas is a 15.5-point favourite for Game 2 at FanDuel.

Next up, we’ll get a double-header of WNBA playoff action tonight on TSN.

The Connecticut Sun are a 9.5-point favourite against a Dallas Wings side that will be without one of its star players in Arike Ogunbuwale for the entire playoffs.

The Wings finished the season on a 6-2 run, so it will be interesting to see if they can give the third-seeded Sun a competitive game tonight.

FanDuel has Connecticut at -800 to win the series.

Later tonight, Breanna Stewart and the Seattle Storm will clash with the Washington Mystics.

FanDuel expects this to be a much closer match-up, as Seattle is -4.5 for tonight’s game and -170 to win the series.

Donaldson, Yankees Rally With Walk-Off Grand Slam

The Yankees limped into last night’s game against the Rays with a 2-11 record in their previous 13 games.

Staring down another loss down three runs in the bottom of the 10^th, their dormant offence finally came alive.

After rallying to beat the Rays, New York will welcome another AL East rival to town as they host the Blue Jays in a four-game series.

The Yankees are a -148 money line favourite at FanDuel.

Elsewhere, Max Scherzer struck out eight as the New York Mets avoided a three-game sweep with a 9-7 win over the Atlanta Braves.

It was Scherzer’s worst start of the season against the Braves, but he got the job done to improve to 3-0 with a 2.21 ERA against Atlanta this season.

MLB favourites went 12-3 overall on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Tony Gonsolin struck out eight over seven innings of two-hit ball as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 to cash the FanDuel Same Game Parlay best bet for us.

Gonsolin is 15-1 with a 2.12 ERA this season.

The FanDuel best bets featured in this column are 3-0 for +6.95 units this week.

We won’t have to wait long to find out if we can keep the streak going today.

I’m taking the Cardinals -1.5 -113 against the Colorado Rockies as my FanDuel Best Bet.

Adam Wainwright has allowed one run or fewer in three of his last four starts.

He’s been absolutely dominant against the Rockies throughout his career, and that should continue this afternoon as Colorado limps into this game with an 18-38 record on the road – the worst in the majors this season.

St. Louis is three games up on the Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in the NL Central.

With a seven-game trip coming up after today’s game, I’ll bet them to take care of business this afternoon and cover the run line against the Rockies as my FanDuel Best Bet.

Seahawks, Bears Open NFL Pre-Season Week 2 Tonight

The NFL pre-season continues tonight when the Seattle Seahawks host the Chicago Bears.

Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock will miss tonight’s game due to a positive COVID-19 test, but Seattle remains a 3.5-point favourite for tonight’s game at FanDuel.

If you follow me on Twitter or you read this column regularly, then you know I’ve been looking to fade the Bears this season as much as possible.

I’m on Chicago under 6.5 wins -140, under 5.5 wins +180 and the Bears to finish with the worst regular season record in the league at +1100.

However, I’m not interested in laying more than a field goal with Seattle in a pre-season game, so at this point I’ll pass on betting tonight’s game.

With three games on the Friday schedule, eight games on Saturday and three games on Sunday, there will be plenty of opportunities to build on a 3-0 start to betting on the NFL pre-season.

LeBron Inks Extension With Lakers

18-time All-Star LeBron James agreed to a two-year, $97.1 million contract extension on Wednesday.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, the extension makes LeBron the highest-earning player in NBA history with $532 million in career guaranteed money.

The Lakers are the ninth choice to win the NBA championship at +1800 at FanDuel right now.

LeBron and company will open the regular season against the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors in October.