The Guru’s WNBA Report: New York and Las Vegas Complete 2-0 Sweep into the Semifinals: Los Angeles Ousts Curt Miller

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

A season after the Las Vegas Aces blunted the New York Liberty in Brooklyn for a 3-1 series sweep to repeat as consecutive champions in the WNBA, keeping one of the few survivors of the original eight charter teams from 1997 still without ever lifting the holy grail, the two talent-loaded teams are set to lock horns again, but it will be in a semifinals best-of-five with New York as the top seed and Las Vegas as the four.

The two underdogs Tuesday night went down fighting but the record books now contain New York with a 91-82 win over the eighth-seeded Atlanta Dream who had an extended stay up North having clinched the final playoff spot Thursday on the final night of the regular season by beating the Liberty.

Out West, the host Aces turned aside the fifth seeded Seattle Storm 83-76.

The fight for the other two semifinals slots will continue Wednesday night in must-see viewing on ESPN where the signature rookie of the league’s future in former Iowa sensation Caitlin Clark will try to  extend the sixth-seeded Indiana Fever to an upset of the third-seeded Connecticut Sun and a trip back to Indianapolis Friday night while at the second-seeded Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis the signature star among some others of the same ilk in the 28-year glorious past history of the WNBA in former UConn great Diana Taurasi, the all-time career scorer likely heading to retirement, will try to keep the seventh seeded Phoenix Mercury alive for a Friday night trip back to the Arizona desert.

And off-court news continued a day after Indiana’s Kelly Krauskopf, who had been in the NBA-brother Pacers front office, was announced she will return as president of basketball and business operations once the Fever season ends. the Los Angeles Sparks, which finished last, parted ways with coach Curt Miller after his arrival two seasons ago from success but no titles with the Sun.

More on that in a bit.

Ionescu Lights Up New York

As for Tuesday’s action first, at the soldout Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Olympian and former Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu, a past overall No. 1 pick, tied a franchise playoff record with 36 points for New York, which loaded its roster a season ago to join Las Vegas as a designated super team. The other mark is held by former Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter.

“The ultimate goal is what it is,” she said. ‘But you know, it’s every single game is a championship game to get to the final goal.

“And obviously our goal is to not lose at home. So this was really important for us to come out, take these two and have a couple days off and kind of rest, recharge and get ready for whatever it is we’re going to play.”

Jonquel Jones, a former George Washington star whose Temple coach Diane Richardson is her guardian, had 20 points and 13 rebounds. She came as a free agent from Connecticut last season.

The New York/Las Vegas series opens in Brooklyn Sunday and Game 2 stays in the East before moving to Sin City.

The Liberty were up by a point starting the fourth quarter, and then Courtney Vandersloot, another 2003 superstar addition, upped it to 75-72 with 5:41 left in regulation, sparking a 12-2 run to douse Atlanta hopes.

Olympian and former UConn standout Breanna Stewart, yet another talent great who came back East from Seattle in 2003, did go through a drought from the second quarter to the third in this one.

‘ I don’t think it was any theme they did different,“ Rhyne Howard said of the late N.Y. outburst. “We fought pretty hard, laid it out there. ‘Coach (former Penn State star Tanisha Wright) told us to not go home with any regrets and we did that.” 

Gray had 26 points for the dream, and Howard, a member of the 3 x 3 USA Olympic contingent in Paris, had 19 points.

Aces Prevail

Las Vegas, which returned to form late in the season, is looking to become the first three-peat since the former Houston Comets won the league’s first four crowns (1997-2000).

Kelsey Plum, an Olympian and former University of Washington star who held the NCAA career scoring record for Division I women until Indiana’s Clark destroyed it last winter, had 29 points for Las Vegas, while also Olympic teammate and former South Carolina star, the league’s unanimous 2004 NVP, had 24 points and 13 rebounds.

Clark passed former greats Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker setting a WNBA playoff record with 20-plus points and at least 10 boards in 13 career games in the postseason.

Seattle was alive with its first lead early in the fourth quarter and then the Aces went on a 7-0 run.

Olympian Chelsea Gray had 12 points for Vegas, whose Plum was 11-15 from the field.

Seattle’s Gabby Williams, the former UConn star who joined the Storm after starring for France in the games in Paris, scored 20, Nneka Ogwumike, a past Stanford great, had 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Ezi Magbegor scored 14, and former Notre Dame great Skylar Diggins-Smith had 13.

LA. Fires Miller

A slew of injuries, including a season-ender early to former Stanford Cameron Brink, sent the Sparks to the worst record in the league and while that gives the team the best shot at landing UConn star Paige Bueckers, Magic Johnson, yes that one, pulled the trigger on Curt Miller, who was one of Cheryl Reeve’s assistants on the Olympics.

Names being speculated in media reporting are former WNBA and Olympic star Katie Smith, an assistant in Minnesota and past New York coach; Dallas Aide Brandi Poole, and Seattle assistant Pokey Chatman, a past Chicago head coach.

But just as the Washington Mystics benefitted years ago off the surprise dismissal of Mike Thibault from the Connecticut Sun, Miller is now a nice catch for the new Golden State Valkyries, coming online next summer, or the new Portland and Toronto groups, which become active in 2026.