The Guru’s WNBA Round Up: New York and Minnesota Go to 6-0 While Connecticut Wins First at the Expense of Indiana and the Injured Caitlin Clark

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It was Friday night lights on the five-game WNBA card with the defending champion New York Liberty (6-0) navigating the end of a three-game/four-day span with no problem in taking an 85-63 road triumph over the Washington Mystics (3-4) while the runner-up Minnesota Lynx (6-0) eked out a 74-71 win at Phoenix (4-2) foiling the Mercury’s upset bid as both winners continued their unbeaten start.

The New York start is the Liberty’s best in history, spanning the 29-year existence of the WNBA dating to 1997.

Connecticut (1-5) edged host Indiana 85-83 to become the last league team getting a win in the early season as the Fever (2-4) dropped its second straight appearance as reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark stayed sidelined with a left quad injury.

The Las Vegas Aces (3-2) treated its home crowd and former star Kelsey Plum to a pre-game highlight video and then thumped her new Los Angeles team 96-81 dousing the Sparks to 2-5 while in the other game of the night Atlanta (5-2) won 94-87 at Seattle (3-3).

Washington drew a near-capacity 4,200 at CareFirst Arena returning from hosting Indiana Wednesday in nearby Baltimore, while 9,043 at the PHX arena watched the desert showdown, 16,213 supported their Fever squad at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis despite Clark’s absence, 10,504 at Michelob ULTRA Arena saw Las Vegas look like the team winning back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 with an advancement to the semifinals last season, and Seattle drew 9,666 at Climate Pledge Arena.

The only game Saturday has Dallas (1-5) at Chicago (1-4) at 8 p.m. on the WNBA streaming League Pass.

On Sunday the two-week annual geographical intra East and West Comissioner’s Cup gets under way, all four games on League Pass, with the standing's winners meeting July 1 at the team with the best record.

New York hosts Connecticut at 3 p.m. at their Barclays Center in Brooklyn; Los Angeles hosts Phoenix at Crypto.com Arena while Seattle hosts Las Vegas both at 6 p.m.; and expansion Golden State (2-3) after its trip East was unable to give New York its first defeat in a blowout loss Tuesday and narrow setback Thursday, will try to knock off unbeaten Minnesota at 8:30 p.m. at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

With the Cup challenge filling the WNBA schedule the first half of the month it will still last much longer until July 30 when New York goes to Minnesota at the Target Center in Minneapolis for the first meeting since the Liberty narrowly edged the Lynx in overtime in a decisive Game 5 of the finals in Brooklyn.

Minnesota visits New York August 10, the two are back at Minnesota August 16 and return to New York August 19 for their fourth and final meeting in the regular season.

New York Handles Washington

Coming off Thursday’s extended challenge from Golden State until the last minute, the back-to-back hurdle on the schedule was brushed aside in the Liberty win in Washington as Sabrina Ionescu exploded again, even more, scoring 28 points with four shots made from deep while Jonquel Jones, the finals MVP, who missed the previous game with a hamstring issue, had 14 points and 18 boards.

The Liberty are 26-0 in games Jones, the George Washington graduate previously with Connecticut several seasons ago, double doubled. She is the adopted daughter of Temple coach Diane Richardson.

The game was close with the Mystics down four points early in the second half until Ionescu’s three-point play launched a 16-0 run to a 63-43 lead with just under two minutes left in the third period.

Brittney Sykes scored 20 for the home team, which shot 28% (21 of 74) for the game, including 4 of 16 from beyond the arc.

Sykes reached her 3,000th career point with the Mystics.

The two Mystics rookies taken in the first round continued to perform with Kiki Iriafen out of Southern Cal, taken fourth overall, scored 12 while Notre Dame standout Sonia Citron scored 10 points.

They are the first WNBA rookies to reach 10 points in each of their first seven games.

Additionally, rookie Lucy Olsen out of Collegeville, who starred at Iowa and previously Villanova, played her most minutes at 13 shooting 1-3 for two points with three boards and two assists.

New York’s Sunday game hosting Connecticut is the Liberty’s fourth in six days before the schedule allows an extended rest. Washington plays its first Commissioner’s Cup game Tuesday at Indiana after beating the Fever Wednesday night.

Minnesota Edges Phoenix to Stay Unbeaten

Phoenix continues to be an early surprise, but the upset bid was foiled when Natisha Hiedeman nailed a game-winning three-pointer with 5.1 seconds left in regulation.

Following a Mercury timeout Sami Whitcomb was unable to tie it with an attempted 3-pointer that would have sent the game into overtime.

The Mercury had led 71-68 when Courtney Williams tied it with a three-pointer with a minute left.

Former Notre Dame star Kayla McBride scored 20 for the Lynx, Alanna Smith scored 19, while Williams, who played at South Florida, filled the box score with 11 points, seven boards, snd seven assists.

The Lynx won without Napheesa Collier, one of the top stars in the league averaging 26.8, who has a knee injury.

Phoenix got 26 points and 11 rebounds from Satou Sabally, while Kalani Brown was 7-8 for15 points and Whitcomb scored 13.

Both teams head West Sunday, Minnesota to Golden State and Phoenix to Los Angeles.

Connecticut Nips Indiana for First Win

The Sun had been a gold standard in the league, even while not able to grab a championship, since the Mohegan Tribe in 2003 bought the the team that was the Orlando Miracle.

But the loss of all five starters and 10 of 12 players in the offseason from the team that was a semifinalist that extended Minnesota to five games doomed Connecticut to an 0-5 start until taking advantage of Caitlin Clark’s sidelining injury on Indiana.

She missed the second of a predicted four games, maybe more, over the next two weeks that concludes with a visit to Chicago and Angel Reese, the game originally moved from Wintrust Arena to the NBA Bulls’ United Center airing at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night on CBS.

Marina Marbrey scored 26 points, 15 in the third quarter, while Tina Charles scored 18 points for the Sun.

Indiana fell behind 74-59 early in the fourth quarter and then erupted on a 19-2 run that featured three consecutive 3-pointers and went in front 78-76 with 2:46 left in regulation.

The teams then exchanged connected deeps on four possessions with Lexi Hull’s make getting the Fever to a one-point 82-81 deficit before Mabrey made it three with 1:15 left.

Sun rookie Saniya Rivers, a first round pick out of N.C. State, made 1-2 from the line making it 85-83 with 5.8 left.

Kelsey Mitchell then fumbled the inbounds pass and defended by Charles heaved an attempted game-winner that failed.

Rivers added 12 points and six assists to Connecticut’s attack.

Indiana’s Aliyah Boston scored 17 with with five rebounds and seven assists, while Mitchell and DeWanna Bonner each scored 13 points. Newcomer Sophie Cunningham left the game with six minutes remaining appearing to suffer an injury to her right ankle.

While Connecticut is off to New York Sunday for its first Cup game, Indiana hosts Washington Tuesday looking to even the Mystics series after Wednesday’s loss.

Las Vegas Whips Los Angeles

A’ja Wilson had her highest scoring game for the winning Aces since reaching 41 on Sept. 1 collecting 35 points with 13 boards and six points as Las Vegas recovered from 20-point loss five days previously 102-82 in Seattle.

Jackie Young scored 26 and Chelsea Gray scored 15.

The Aces quickly tried to put the Sparks in the rear-view mirror with a 23-2 run, but the visitors made it more competitive with a 15-5 answer to draw within 28-21 before Las Vegas erupted again with a 15-3 attack the next quarter and cruised the rest of the way.

Kelsey Plum, in her first game back since leaving the Aces for Tinseltown, scored 17 points, Odyssey Sims scored 15, and Dearica Hamby, a former Aces member, had 14 points.

Technicals in separate moments were given to Plum and first-year coach Lynne Roberts for arguing with the referees.

Plum was part of a three-team trade in January that resulted in Jewell Loyd landing in Las Vegas from Seattle.

Atlanta Rallies Over Seattle

The Dream, trailing by 17 early in the third quarter, exploded on a 14-6 run and then went 11-0 to move within a basket at 61-59 with 2:48 left in the third period.

Atlanta, winning its fourth straight under first-year coach Karl Smesko, went in front in the fourth quarter for the first time since 3-2 back near the outset and held on as the combo of Rhyne Howard with 33 points and Allisha Gray with a career best 28 dominated the game combining with 40 points in the second half.

Free agent Brionna Jones out of the Connecticut Sun scored 15 while Naz Hillmon had 11 points and six boards.

Seattle’s Skylar Diggins, who scored 20, moved the Storm to within a basket at 82-80 but Gray answered with two from the line and Howard sealed it with six more points.

Nneka Ogwumike added 16 points for the Storm while Gabby Williams and Erica Wheeler each scored 14 points.

Atlanta is off until returning to the road for the Dream’s third straight in enemy arenas while Seattle makes it Sunday two of three straight at home hosting Las Vegas.

The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: New York Avoids Upset by Newcomer Golden State While Chicago Edges Dallas for First Season Win; NCAA Field to Increase?

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK – Just two nights after New York plundered Golden State 95-67 here at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn the expansion Valkyries gave the defending WNBA champion Liberty all they could handle up to the final minute until the home team paced by 27 points from Breanna Stewart and 24 from Sabrina Ionescu emerged with a narrow 82-77 victory.

Thursday was the first time this season New York did not reach 90 points.

On the same night over in Manhattan where a crowd of 19,812 packed Madison Square Garden to see the NBA Knicks extended the best-of-seven Eastern Finals against the Indianapolis Pacers to 3-2 from the underside for the moment preventing a closeout, Barclays here was as full and loud as it has been all season — with a total of 14,951.

It’s  an interesting comparison to make because  in Thursday’s USA Today nationwide edition, the Gannett Publication had a headline-screaming layout that because Indiana’s Caitlin Clark was to be sidelined for a minimum four games the next two weeks due to a left quad injury the WNBA’s Sky was falling.

For one, then explain the crowd size here on the same night the Knicks were suited up. And the only Sky associated with the WNBA was one in Chicago, which topped Dallas and overall No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers 97-92 in Thursday’s other game played at Wintrust Arena before a crowd of 9,025 for the Windy City team’s first triumph of the season, snapping an opening four-game losing streak.

The visiting Wings (1-5) had gotten their first win on Tuesday leaving the Connecticut team they beat the last one still with a zero on the left side of the scoreboard with the Sun’s next chance to have WNBA media dispense with the word winless until the playoffs will occur on Friday’s five-game slate with a visit to Indiana at 7:30 p.m. in Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

All five games will be on ION and the WNBA’s streaming League Pass.

For two, the game on Wednesday between Washington and Indiana, Clark on the bench with the injury, drew 357,000 viewers, the 10th most watched WNBA game ever on NBA TV.

 That there’s been a Cloud among the Liberty players, that was not from above since it’s former Saint Joseph’s star Natasha Cloud, who arrived here in a trade from a short stay in Connecticut last winter after being dealt to the Sun from Phoenix and accounted for the game’s final points at the line to push the outcome away from Golden State completing a stunner.

It’s an interesting stretch for New York, in play the second of three games in four days.

The Liberty hit the road in the end of a back-to-back Friday night, visiting the Washington Mystics (3-3) at 7:30 p.m. at CareFirst Arena in the Southeast section of the nation’s capital across the Potomac from downtown.

Friday’s other three games have Los Angeles (2-4) at Las Vegas (2-2) at Michelob ULTRA Arena at 10 p.m., the same tip time as Minnesota (5-0) in a key game at Phoenix (4-1) at PHX Arena, while Atlanta (4-2) is at Seattle (3-2) at Climate Pledge Arena.

Back here in Brooklyn, where the teams kept trading leads across the second half, Stewart, who was 6-12 from the field and a whopping 15-19 from the line, hit two of those foul shots to get the Liberty back in front 78-77 with 1:35 left in regulation.

Attempting to regain the lead the Valkryies missed three straight shots from deep, lost the ball on a five-second penalty after a timeout that enabled New York to dribble away some clock before Cloud scored with 24 seconds left to make it 80-77.

Cecilia Zanadasini, part of a foreign corp in the way Golden State chose to build it’s roster, went for the tie but shot an air ball and Cloud finished it.

In all there were 20 swings and 16 ties in the game in which actor Jackie Chan was among the celebrities here in the crowd.

Before the game he met with Ionescu and Golden State coach Natalie Nakase, the league’s first Asian American head coach. She had been on Becky Hammon’s staff in Las Vegas and played at UCLA.

Janelle Salaun had 18 points and 13 boards for Golden State, which soon will have to deal with a brief period in which many of its players will go back to their homes across the Atlantic playing in the Euro championship pursuit.

The Valkyries play the other unbeaten team in Minnesota Sunday hosting the Lynx at Chase Arena in San Francisco, the day the two-week Commissioner’s Cup series gets under way in which all the teams within the East and West meet each other home-and-home and then the best in each division meet for the championship and a sizeable financial prize.

Though this series has teams meeting within Divisions the eight who make the playoffs are seeded overall without regard to their geographical classification.

Had New York reached 90 points again, the Liberty would have matched the 2023 champion Las Vegas start doing it five straight times to start the season.

The Liberty were able to win without finals MVP Jonquel Jones, who was suffering a right hamstring situation.

Chicago Clips Dallas

While Paige Bueckers last month at Connecticut and Angel Reese in 2023 at Las Vegas each won NCAA titles in their collegiate careers, the two sensations had never met in regular season or national tournament competition.

That finally happened Thursday in the other game on the WNBA card with Reese’s Chicago squad (1-4) finally getting a season win against Bueckers’ Dallas group.

The two will quickly meet again, playing in Saturday’s only game in Texas switching sites and playing at 8 p.m. on League Pass.

In the Windy City, the Sky’s second-year pro Kamilla Cardoso out of South Carolina’s 2024 championship had a career-best 23 points, while Courtney Vandersloot, who returned to the Sky in free agency from New York’s champions, set career records for the franchise in points and field goals.

Dallas had a season-high performer in hot scorer Arike Ogunbowale, the former Notre Dame standout, who had 37 points for the Wings, who went ahead on Chicago with her three-pointer 92-91 with 2:11 left in regulation.

But then she was scoreless the rest of the way and the Sky finished with a 6-0 run to gain the victory.

Vandersloot had 13 points, nine assists and four steals to move past her wife Allie Quigley with career totals of 3,728 points and 1,394 field goals.

Quigley, who starred at DePaul in Chicago, had 3,273 points and 1,386 field goals in a career that spanned from 2013 to 2022 that included one championship.

Bueckers, who had a breakout game in Tuesday’s win at Connecticut, shot 6-11 from the field for 15 points with five boards and eight assists, while Reese had six points and nine rebounds.

Dallas also got 15 points from Dijonai Carrington and 10 points from Myisha Hines-Allen, while reserve Teaira McCowan grabbed eight boards.

Former Villanova star Maddy Siegriest, who went third overall in the 2023 draft, scored five points with three boards off the bench.

Chicago’s Ariel Atkins was also in double figures with 17 points and Rebecca Allen had 13 points off the bench.

NCAA Field to Enlarge?

While the WNBA talk in recent seasons of expansion has involved teams, with Golden State  breaking the long drought since the last new addition and Toronto and Portland to follow with at least one more in the current cycle, expansion in the NCAA has to do with the size of tournament fields.

President Charlie Baker at the Big 12 spring meeting in Orlando revealed the potential to have the size grow from 68 to 72 or 76 this coming season to involve more at-large teams.

That would have an effect on the women’s field, which grew to 68 to match the men in the wake of the independent investigation involving equity in the two events launched after complaints involving the women’s tournament in 2021, the games all played in San Antonio in a bubble due to the CoVid crisis in the nation.

Since, whenever the subject came up of growing field size for the men, comments were made the increase would also involve the women.

Several sources involving the women’s decisions said that would be the expectation, the next time to look for some news would be in July when both tournament committees have their annual summer meetings.

Had the suggested size been in place in recent seasons both Villanova and Saint Joseph’s would have easily made the event.

One thought though, while women’s basketball is exploding the question is whether the quality is that deep, enough to wonder if the first two rounds would see more lopsided outcomes.

However, if the early matches were structured more like a play-in nature as is the case with the First Four, then likes meeting each other early would cause more competitiveness.

Stay tuned.

The Guru’s WNBA Round Up: Washington Snaps Three-Game Skid by Edging Clark-less Indiana

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

An enhanced crowd of 11,183 Mystics fan at the only WNBA game of Wednesday night who were at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore got the two things they came to see: Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and what became an 83-77 win by Washington (3-3) that snapped a three-game losing streak, all by narrow setbacks off the recent road trip.

The attendance figure was for sold tickets, the actual live crowd, a bit less, according to the Washington Post, which said the cheapest ticket price on the secondary market was $41 when first on sale but had plunged to $6 near the time of the opening tip, few taking advantage.

The Fever dropped to 2-3 but Clark had no role in the loss, but she did on the price decline being on the bench out of uniform sidelined by a left quad injury announced Monday missing the first of a minimum of a predicted four games the next weeks.

“That’s a very good team,” said Washington first-year coach Sydney Johnson after the game of the Fever, adding, “and I feel like we’re showing a little bit of something ourselves.”

As all WNBA teams with small home arenas have done involving Clark visits since she came into league last season, the Mystics, who had already sold a slew of tickets prior to her injury in last Saturday’s narrow home loss to New York, moved the game up the road from their Southeast Washington home to Baltimore unable to use the larger downtown sister NBA Capital Center that is undergoing renovations.

Clark is out of pro action for the first after all 40 regular season and two playoff games in 2024 and the first four of this season. Additionally, she had perfect game participation her Iowa career that began with the 2020-21 Covid-plagued season.

The last time she was out of uniform was her sophomore season at Dowling Catholic High in her hometown of West Des Moines.

Ironically, the Mystics game included a rookie player who filled Clark’s point guard spot last winter after the all-time NCAA leading scorer graduated Iowa to be the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 draft by the Fever who went on to be rookie of the year and made the All-WNBA first team.

That would be Lucy Olsen, who transferred from Villanova to the Hawkeyes her senior season and kept Iowa relevant last winter though unable to extend a two-time advance to the NCAA title game.

Olsen, drafted in the second round at 23rd overall last month, only played six minutes off the bench, about her floor time average in five earlier games but she made the most of them shooting 2-3 making both 3-point attempts and she also dished for an assist.

That is about the same average time Olsen’s former Villanova teammate Maddy Siegrist, the all-time Philadelphia’s NCAA women’s scorer, saw in 2023 after going third overall to Dallas.

Leading the way in Washington’s win Wednesday night as she has done most of the season was Syracuse grad Brittney Sykes with 21 points and nine boards.

“Being able to bring this game here is so much more than basketball.” Sykes said. “Just being able to have a performance like we did in front of little girls from Baltimore – little guys, too, but especially little girls – is just helping them see what the WNBA is.”

Rookie Kiki Iriafen, fourth overall in the draft, added 16 points, the former Southern Cal and previous Stanford standout looking as a potential threat to Dallas’ No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers to rookie of the year as has been Washington’s other first rounder Sonia Citron, the Notre Dame grad who scored 13 points.

Ole Miss grad Shakira Austin off the bench also scored 13, all in the first half which ended with the home team ahead 44-40. She had missed a week caused by a concussion.

The Mystics are the youngest of the 13 WNBA teams just over an average age of 29.

On the other side, free-agent signee Dewanna Bonner, formerly with the Connecticut, off the bench was 5-10 with a pair from deep scoring 21 points for the Fever, Kelsey Mitchell added 14 points, Aliyah Boston scored 10 with seven rebounds, Natasha Howard scored 11 with six boards and Lexie Hull was just short scoring double figures with nine points.

Bonner, just before the game’s end, hit a long 3-pointer and now is the first WNBA player with 7,500 points, 3,000 rebounds, and 1,000 assists.

Despite Clark’s absence, replaced by Sydney Colson scoring four points as a starter in 31 minutes, the game was close all the way, Washington securing the win with Sykes blocking Mitchell’s attempted layup and then adding three of four free throw attempts in the last minute.

Prior to the tip, Clark signed autographs and took selfies with fans behind Indiana’s bench, according to the Washington Post, over 12 minutes before moving by the scorer’s table for the game close to the Fever coaching staff headed by Stephanie White.

“When you're forced to sit on the sideline for a while, there's some things you can see you might not have noticed in live action,” White said afterwards. “So, I think it gives Caitlin an opportunity to look at it a little more from a coach's perspective.... She can hear some of the conversations, hear points of emphasis and see it through a different lens.”

Washington next up hosts New York, part of Friday night’s five-game slate, the defending champion Liberty coming as part of a back-to-back after hosting Golden State Thursday at 7 p.m. on the WNBA’s streaming League Pass.

New York (4-0) also hosted the expansion Valkyries Tuesday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, winning 109-87, setting a WNBA record reaching 90 points in all four season games to date.

Indiana on Friday at 7:30 p.m. hosts Connecticut (0-5), the visiting Sun still after their first season win in the game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. All five Friday games are on ION and League Pass.

Thursday’s other game, which is airing on Amazon Prime, has the league’s other winless team, the Chicago Sky (0-4), at 8 p.m. at Dallas (1-4), which was led by overall No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers Tuesday at Connecticut in the Wing’s first win this season.

Washington is back in Baltimore again in September when Indiana next visits.

As for the magnet effect on these arena moves caused by the phenomenon surge of interest in the sport caused by Clark dating to her junior season at Iowa, White, who previously coached Indiana to a title but recently had been running the Connecticut Sun, gave her perspective:

“I don't care what the reason is that you come to watch that first time,” she said. “Because then, they fall in love with the product. They fall in love with the game. They fall in love with how these women are the best in the world. It just takes getting them there once, and they'll want to come back.”