Guru’s WNBA Report: Washington Upsets Minnesota While L.A. and Las Vegas Stay in Pursuit of 1st Place Seattle

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

The defending WNBA champion Washington Mystics held on to upset the Minnesota Lynx 89-86 Tuesday night and thus held on, slim as it is, to a shot to returning to the postseason while the three-way race at the top for the top two seeds and a double bye to the playoffs semifinals continued at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., near Tampa/St. Petersburg.

 

The front-running Seattle Storm (16-3) was idle while the Las Vegas Aces (15-4) dispatched the Indiana Fever (5-15) from playoff contention for the eighth and final spot, winning 92-86 to move within a game of Seattle, and the Los Angeles Sparks (15-5) were merciless to last-place New York (2-17) beating the Liberty 96-70 to be close behind in third 1.5 games behind the Storm.

 

The Minnesota loss didn’t cost the Lynx their fourth place slot though they are out of the running for the premium playoff seeds but are also just a game in front of the idle Phoenix Mercury (12-8) for the one-game bye to the second round.

 

The Mercury’s 85-70 loss to Connecticut Monday night put the seventh-place Sun back into the postseason though it will be much lower than a year ago when a two-seed was good enough to get to the championship best-of-five round, where they lasted till the fourth quarter in a decisive Game 5.

 

Connecticut became the third team in the 24-year-history of the WNBA to lose its first five or more games and come back to get to the playoffs.

 

Washington, in ninth a game behind the Dallas Wings, may still rue Sunday’s loss to the Texans when in the closing seconds of regulation after Emma Meesseman missed one-of-two foul shots, Dallas came the other way and Notre Dame grad Arike Ogunbowale nailed a three-pointer to force overtime, where she took over the extra period  to give Dallas the win.

 

A helping hand in the schedule exists Wednesday night For the Mystics with Dallas set to play Seattle at 10 p.m. on CBSSN. 

 

Phoenix and Connecticut play again Wednesday at 7 on Facebook, with Phoenix trying to gain on Minnesota and the Sun trying to gain on the Lynx and the Chicago Sky.

 

In the other game Wednesday, Chicago and the Atlanta Dream play at 8 on CBSSN with the Sky gunning for one of the one-game bye slots and the Dream (5-14) trying for a miracle way to crash into the last playoff slot if Seattle will help the cause with Dallas.

 

As for the tale of the tape for the Washington-Minnesota game, Myisha Hines-Allen had 26 points for the winning Mystics, who had one of their better three-point shooting nights with nine connected from beyond the arc.

 

Ariel Atkins scored 18, Tianna Hawkins had 14 points, Emma Meesseman, the MVP of last year’s playoffs, scored 18, and Leilani Mitchell dealt 10 assists.

 

Reigning rookie of the year Napheesa Collier had a double double for Minnesota, scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, while rookie Crystal Dangerfield scored 20, Odyssey Sims scored 17, and Damiris Dantas scored 14.

 

Los Angeles Blasts New York

 

The Sparks continued their pursuit of one of the top two spots in the playoffs by overwhelming the New York Liberty 96-70 gaining a franchise second-best ever total of 32 assists.

 

The Los Angeles duo of Kristine Anigwe with 14 points and Te’a Cooper with 15 both registered career highs while Chelsea Gray dealt nine assists.

 

Riquna Williams and Nneka Ogwumike each scored 20 points, while Candace Parker scored 14.

 

New York rookie Jocelyn Willoughby scored 21 points, Kia Nurse had 13 points, and reserve Paris Kea scored 11.

 

      “They just deserve a lot of credit right now,” said Los Angeles coach Derek Fisher, addressing team play with missing players Sydney Weiss and Brittany Sykes lost to injuries Sunday, and Tierra Ruffin-Pratt who was sidelined early on Tuesday.

 

“I feel like it made the team feel more connected with each other. Knowing that three of their sisters are not out there with them. It was good to see tonight I think because they were sharing the basketball,” he commented on the wire-to-wire Los Angeles pace. “They kept fighting together.”

 

Ogwumike noted, “I think our chemistry is really building as we close out the regular season. I want to keep doing my best to be as productive as I can because that’s something I hang my hat on for my game. I love being efficient and productive and nowhere near a liability out there, so if I can be aggressive and do that, then that’s what I want.”

 

Las Vegas Eliminates Indiana

 

The Aces stayed a game behind Seattle while taking the Fever out of the postseason race as A’ja Wilson had a double double of 22 points and 15 rebounds, Jackie Young scored 17 and dealt seven assists, Angel McCoughtry scored 15, and Dearica Hamby scored 13.

 

Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell scored 24, rookie Julie Allemand scored 19, and Temple grad Candice Dupree scored 16.

 

 

Playoff Dates Set

 

Seven of eight teams have qualified while eighth-place Dallas, ninth-place Washington, and 10^th-place Atlanta are going to the wire fighting for the last spot.

 

The coronavirus-shortened 22-game regular season concludes Sunday, an add-on day to include the three remaining makeup games from the recent two-day postponements as the WNBA players joined their NBA brothers and the cause of social justice and particularly protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake earlier in the summer in Kenosha, Wis.

 

At this moment none of the seven qualified teams have their precise seed position.

 As mentioned, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles are fighting for the top two slots and a double bye.

 

The loser falls to third while Minnesota, Phoenix and Chicago are fighting for the other one-game bye, and Connecticut is trying to see how much higher it can get in its remaining two games.

 

Earlier Tuesday, the league announced the playoff times and dates with all games to be streamed on the ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 apps.

 

Next Tuesday the first round single-elimination doubleheader seeds 8 vs. 5 and 6 vs. 7 will air at 7 and 9 p.m. Eastern time.

 

Two days later on Thursday, Sept. 7, at the same time, the winners will play the third and fourth seeds, pairings to be determined by the winning results of round one.

 

 While those games will be available on the Apps mentioned, the broadcast itself will air on ESPN2.

 

The semifinals, pairings to be determined, which like the finals are best-of-five, will begin Sunday, Sept. 20, the first of the doubleheader at 1 p.m. on ESPN, and the second at 3 p.m. on ABC.

 

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the Games 2 times are at 6 p.m. and 8 on ESPN2.

 

On Thursday, Sept. 24, the Games 3 times are 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

 

If necessary, on Sept. 27, Sunday, if both Games 4 are in play they air at 1 p.m. on ESPN, and 3 p.m. on ABC. If only one, the guess here is it would be the ABC slot.

 

Likewise for Games 5, Tuesday, Sept. 29, both at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on ESPN2.

 

The championship schedule is:

 

Game 1 on Friday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

Game 2 on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 3 p.m. on ABC.

Game 3 on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Game 4 if necessary on Thursday, Oct. 8 on ESPN2.

Game 5 if necessary on Sunday, Oct. 11 at 3 p.m. on ABC.

 

And that’s the report.