Guru’s WNBA Report: Washington Prevails After Dallas Narrow Win While Vegas Catches Seattle for No. 1 Seed

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

A week after Arike Ogunbowale seemingly shot the Washington Mystics out of the last spot in the WNBA’s eight-team playoffs, she nearly did it again Sunday, with a shot and free throw with 12.4 seconds in regulation to give what became with an additional point at the finish for the Dallas Wings an 82-79 victory over the gamely but last-place New York Liberty at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., near Tampa/St. Petersburg on the last day of the coronavirus-shortened 22-game regular season.

 

But this time after a ragged start in what became the overall final game, the defending champions fought back and pulled ahead down the stretch to beat the Atlanta Dream 85-78 and claim the final spot.

 

When the season opened, Washington was missing key players such as Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne, the reigning regular season MVP, who was still rehabbing back issues; Tina Charles, acquired in a deal with New York, and Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud, who used the opt-out option to pursue social justice matters.

 

But former Louisville star Myisha Hines-Allen, who played little the last two seasons, became a star and a frontrunner for the league’s most-improved award.

 

It was the fourth straight win for Washington (9-13) after a 3-0 start and then going through a 1-12 stretch making the Mystics one of the few in the 24-year history of the WNBA to suffer that kind of misfortune and still make the postseason.

 

The now-defunct Charlotte Sting got off to a 1-12 start under the late coach Anne Donovan and eventually turned around and made it to the finals, losing to Los Angeles in 2001.

 

After Washington suffered the heartbreak to Dallas, the Mystics pulled two upsets in their improbable finish this past week, beating Minnesota and Los Angeles and then getting the weekend back-to-backs over New York and Atlanta.

 

Dallas, meanwhile, suffered a loss to Seattle, a game in which the Wings lost promising first-round draft pick Satou Sabally out of Oregon, who collided in the fourth quarter with the Storm’s Sue Bird, who herself has not played since.

 

The Wings also yielded late in a game Friday night to Chicago and then had to rally Sunday to at least stay alive several more hours by beating New York.

 

 Atlanta (7-15), which became tougher the last several weeks, was eliminated Saturday when Washington beat the Liberty and finishes in 10^th  behind Dallas (8-14) and ahead of Indiana (6-16) and New York (2-20).

 

Those four land in the annual lottery portion of the WNBA draft with the order to be determined in the near future. A year ago the Liberty for the first time won the top pick, selected tantalizing Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu, but she was lost for the season with an injury in her third game.

 

Meanwhile, sandwiched between the two Sunday contests was a tantalizing game at the top of the standings in which the Las Vegas Aces caught the season-long front-running Seattle Storm 86-84 to tie for first and earn the top seed for the postseason off a 2-0 series sweep.

 

Vegas coach Bill Laimbeer at the outset in late July considered his bunch a “middle-of-the-pack” crowd considering Kelsey Plum was injured and Australian sensation Liz Cambage opted out, as did many foreigners across the league, because of the coronavirus issues.

 

Meanwhile, other than wounded pride, the loss wasn’t too devastating for the Storm since both teams (18-4) earn double-byes to the best-of-five semifinals.

 

The Los Angeles Sparks (15-7) and Minnesota Lynx (14-8) finished third and fourth, earned one-game byes to Thursday’s second-round and will meet the winners, pairings to be determined, of Tuesday’s playoff openers of the No. 6 Chicago Sky (12-10) and No. 7 Connecticut Sun (10-12) in Tuesday’s 7 p.m. game and the No. 5 Phoenix Mercury (13-9) against the No. Washington Mystics (9-13) in the 9 p.m. contest, both televised on ESPN 2.

 

Thursday’s games will also air at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on ESPN 2 with the Minnesota game at 7 and the Los Angeles Game at 9.

 

The lowest seed winner Thursday will advance against Las Vegas Sunday to start the semifinals while the other team will meet Seattle. Who is in what slot is still open but the first game will air on ESPN at 1 p.m. and the second game on ABC at 3.

 

The best-of-five finals are set to start Friday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, however, the league indicated if both semifinals are done in three or four games, the start date may move up to Sept. 27 or Sept. 29.

 

The playoffs, continuing off the regular season, will continue in the wubble in Florida.

 

Technically, the season was set to end Saturday, but several weeks ago each team stood down a game over two days as WNBA players supported their NBA relations protesting the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., as well as other particulars in the cause of social justice.

 

As tight as competition was at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom all season, very little chaos existed heading to the final standings. Seattle and Las Vegas settled their issue on the court, No. 3 Los Angeles thru the end at No. 12 New York all finished alone in their standings placements.

 

Washington Rallies Over Atlanta to Return to the Postseason

 

Former Texas star Ariel Atkins wasn’t going to lose so with Hines-Allen slipping back a bit she put the Mystics on her shoulders, scoring 26 points, though Hines-Allen still registered an impressive 16-point, 10-rebounds double double.

 

“That’s what she’s been doing for a couple of weeks now,” Washington coach Mike Thibault said of Atkins performance. “The willingness to step up and make big shots. She’s not scared of the moment. She wasn’t scared of the moment as a rookie helping us to win the Atlanta series to get to finals.

 

“That’s why we drafted her.”

 

 

Belgium’s Emma Meesseman, the first reserve to win the playoffs MVP award last season, had 14 points, and Kiara Leslie scored 11. Leilani Mitchell dealt seven assists.

 

Having played must-win situations the best two weeks could be helpful in Tuesday’s game with Phoenix.

 

“If we get some sleep. We haven’t had a lot of recovery time,” Thibault said. “But it could help us with our urgency. Having played them a couple of weeks ago, they were making changes after (Brittney) Griner left.

 

“But I think it will help us Tuesday.”

 

Atlanta’s Betnijah Laney, a former Rutgers star, had a game-high 27 points, rookie-of-the-year candidate Chennedy Carter scored 26, and Courtney Williams had 11 rebounds.

 

Washington committed just two turnovers, lowest by any team this season, and lowest by anyone WNBA team since two decades ago in July of 2000.

 

The Mystics were also a perfect 18-for-18 from the line.

 

“We slowed ourselves down recently,” Thibault said of the ball handling stat. “Every possession has to count in a game like this. You can’t have throw away possessions. That was terrific tonight.

 

“Phoenix had to find a new identity when Griner left. What they’ve done is find the old Diana (Taurasi), who’s kind of taken over.  She’s been much more aggressive, offensively. They’ve gotten contributions from a lot of people, but a player not talked about is (Brittany) Turner. I voted her for the defensive team. She’s been kind of the unsung player.”

 

Atlanta coach Nicki Collen summed up her season, saying, “I think the odds were stacked against this team and they could have quit a long time ago. 

 

“It wasn’t easy. They just kept working. They came to work every day. They weren’t always perfect, but I think we just got better. 

 

“I wish we had been playing for something today,” Collen referred to being eliminated Saturday. “I think think the outcome would have been differently if that was the game to dictate who was going to the playoffs instead of us being spoiler. 

 

“I don’t think they were a lot of teams that wanted to play us down the stretch. Would have liked to gone out with a win, one way or the other, but proud how we came along.” 

 

Dallas Briefly Stays Alive Until Washington Qualifies

 

In addition to her game-winner, Arike Ogunbowale finished with 26 points after Dallas was down to New York from 8:39 in the third quarter.

 

Another Notre Dame product Marina Mabrey fired a career-high six three-pointers and finished with a career-high 24 points, while also having six rebounds, three steals, and blocked a shot.

 

Ogunbowale averaged 22.8 points per game, the highest average for a second-year player and she is now alongside Cynthia Cooper and Seimone Augustus as the only players to be top three scorers their first two seasons.

 

The Milwaukeean joins the UConn duo of Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi and Minnesota’s Maya Moore as the only players to average 22.8 points, 3.4 assists, and 2.8 rebounds in a WNBA season.

 

Ogunbowale has also scored double digits 37 straight games, the second longest streak in the franchise that was previously the Tulsa Shock and before that the three-time champion Detroit Shock.

 

Rookie Tayasha Harris had 10 points, while Kayla Thornton had 10 rebounds.

 

“Our season was a roller coaster for a variety of reasons,” Dallas coach Brian Agler said. “We took some losses, we battled some really good teams to the wire, we had a series of injuries that just kept happening, happening, happening.

 

“But I always look at, when you face adversity, it also creates opportunities, we had some people who really took advantage of opportunities they were given this year,” Agler said. “I feel we just learned a lot about ourselves and that’s what you want to do in a season. Learn a lot and have a good feeling at the end and momentum going into next year.”

 

 Ogunbowale said of the game, “(New York) had a lot of intensity. Obviously, they knew it was their last game, so they were going to go out with a bang. They were going to make their runs, we knew that, so we had to go back at the runs, and that’s what we did, and we were able to close it out in clutch time.”

 

New York’s Jazmine Jones had 21 points and seven rebounds, while Leaonna Odom scored 20, Amanda Zahul B had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Kia Nurse scored 12.

 

It’s the first time in franchise history, which matches the league’s history in years, that two rookies scored 20 or more points in the same game.

 

“The main thing we talked about was a lot of players and a lot of teams would have entered that game a lot more lackadaisical then our players did,” said Liberty first-year coach Walt Hopkins. “I was impressed with the way they competed.

 

“It’s been the same story all year. The bench plays well or the starters play well, but it’s hard to get everybody to play together on the same night. But as a whole, this game was pretty representative of who we’ve been as a team, the good and the bad.

 

“But at the end of the day, I see this team fighting, staying together, and I can’t emphasize enough how easy it would have been to roll over in this game. We never came close to doing that. I really wanted this one for them,” he continued.

 

“But I don’t know how you can watch this group and not be excited about the future. The points that led up to that last couple of minutes were really fun and special for this group, who probably doesn’t get enough credit how hard it is to be competitive in a season like this every single night.”

  

“As for the future, “We’re going to have a lot to look at, players who are here and players who are not here but are also in the roster who are really valuable. Obviously, a few more sharpshooters who can defend, but it’s not an indictment of anyone on this roster.”

 

Las Vegas Catches Seattle at the Finish

 

The Aces lived up to their nicknames as the top of the deck, catching Seattle (18-4) in a tie after chasing the Storm all season to also finish No. 1 with an 86-84 victory and the top seed in the playoffs off a 2-0 sweep.

 

Former South Carolina star A’ja Wilson, a candidate for regular season MVP, and Dearica Hamby, and candidate for the Sixth Player postseason award, each scored 23 points, while Danielle Robinson scored 13.

 

Notre Dame grad Jewell Loyd had 30 points for Seattle in a game in which the Storm missed two of their prime players in MVP candidate Breanna Stewart, out with a foot injury, and Sue Bird, who hasn’t played since the fourth quarter collision last week with rookie Satou Sabally out of Oregon in the Dallas game.

 

Mercedes Russell had 11 rebounds.

 

Both teams are off until the best-of-five semifinals next Sunday opens against the two survivors from the six teams involved in the first two rounds on Tuesday and Thursday.

 

At the moment, though finishing with the two seed, the potential of Los Angeles and Minnesota right now as opponents doesn’t necessarily offer an advantage in seed position unless some upsets occur.

 

Bill Laimbeer, who coached the former Detroit Shock, now the franchise in Dallas with a stop at Tulsa along the way, isn’t worried.

 

Going into Sunday’s game, the second of a back-to-back after Saturday beating Los Angeles, Laimbeer said, “We got a lot of weapons.

 

“Who’d thunk it, we end up with the best record in the league,” Laimbeer said Sunday after the win. “That’s a pretty good accomplishment for our basketball team. We started the year lot of uncertainty, a lot of new faces. To have this success so far, we’ll take it.

 

“We realize we won nothing. But we put ourselves into getting into a series with four teams left, that’s an accomplishment unto itself. Lot of good performances. Yeah, we’ll take it.

 

“I did say there will teams that come together in this environment.”

 

He also put in a plug for Wilson as MVP and Hamby as sixth-player of the year.

 

“I’m happy for the franchise. Our fans would be going berserk right now. I feel bad for Kelsey Plum. This environment is made for her.”

 

As for Wilson, he said, “She knows who she is and she knows where she’s going. The thing she said was, ‘I’m a professional basketball player,’ and that speaks volumes.”

 

With a week off, Seattle may get back to full roster health.

 

“I thought we battled, we were one or two plays away from winning this game,” Seattle coach Gary Kloppenburg said in terms of any pyschological advantage the Aces gained in the win. “We’ll have time to prepare for them if we see them again.

 

“Every game is different. We have to get prepared for whoever we play in that first round. The bigger message coming out of the wubble is what great leaders these women are, not only on our team, but all of the teams, what these coaches and players 100 percent represent, in trying to progress towards a just society.

 

“To me, basketball, we played really well (for the season). We’re going to be right there trying to win a championship. I look back at this time, heading into the playoffs, it just jumps at me, if we had leaders like this running our country, we’d be in a whole lot better shape. That’s what this league is about.”

 

Until Loyd scored a couple at the finish, Seattle had gone five minutes without a basket.

 

“I thought we had some shots that were in and out in that time,” Kloppenburg said. “They’re a good defensive team. Sometimes you get in situations where it’s hard to score. I give them some credit. I still think we’re going to be able to prepare for them if we get a chance to play again.

 

“Obviously, we can’t meet them till the final, but we were one or two plays away for beating them.

 

Tonight we got to the line 20 times, they got their 27, that’s what they do. I don’t put a lot of credence in these two games. The playoffs are a whole lot different.”

 

And that’s the report.