The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Expansion Golden State Wins its Second Straight With a Payback to Los Angeles While Minnesota, Las Vegas and Seattle Rally to Victories

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

The WNBA went into into its second weekend Friday night with Minnesota and Las Vegas rallying to victories, as did Seattle winning at the finish while the expansion Golden State squad launched its first road trip with a second straight triumph paying back the Los Angeles group that ruined its league debut a week ago in San Francisco.

Most of the night’s action took place out West but the four-game card got under way in the Midwest where the Lynx (4-0) at home at the Target Center in Minneapolis became one of only two teams along with defending champion New York (2-0) still unbeaten by coming back from a 15-point deficit in the last 5:20 to deprive Connecticut (0-3) of its first season victory holding the Sun scoreless for over 4 ½ minutes to end on top 76-70.

“Obviously, we have to play better,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star out of South Jersey, of the way it went before the rally.

Former UConn standout Napheesa Collier continued to blast the scoreboard for Minnesota, collecting 33 points and grabbing 11 boards in a game the Lynx trailed much of the night with the Sun making a statement in the wake of its two initial setbacks back home in Uncasville.

“We started relying on our defense,” Collier said of the rally. “We were pressuring, we got a lot of deflections and steals, we never felt we were going to lose. We just went out and we got a lot of stops.”

Tina Charles, another Huskies great who returned this season to the team that made her the overall No. 1 draft pick, put the visitors up 68-53 before the WNBA runner-up went to work with an 18-0 run replicating a similar comeback to the NBA Indiana Pacers in Game One of the Eastern Conference finals against New York who they now lead 2-0 in the best-of-seven series after Friday’s second road win 114-109 at Madison Square Garden.

Connecticut, though yet to win a title, had been one of the league’s top teams since moving from Orlando under new ownership in 2003.

But after the Sun were eliminated by Minnesota in last season’s semifinals, the team lost all five starters and 10 of 12 on the roster last winter and the Mohegan Tribe, who became the first non-NBA front office affiliate in the WNBA, recently began exploring a potential sale and relocation, saying they want to do what’s best for themselves and the league.

As the Lynx got closer in the rally with the game winding down, Collier scored on a jumper, they forced the visitors into a shot-clock violation and then Collier tied it from the 68–68 with 1:38 left.

Natisha Hiedeman than put Minnesota up on her former team with a shot from deep scoring eight of her 11 points in the 23-2 run in the last five minutes. Jessica Shepard scored 13.

Marina Mabrey, who stared at Notre Dame, scored 22 for the Sun, including 4-12 on 3-pointers, first-round draft pick Saniya Rivers, who went eight overall last month, scored 111 with six boards, former Husky Olivia Nelson-Ododa double doubled with 10 each in points and boards, reserve Haley Peters, a former Duke star, scored 12, but Charles only scored four points, shooting 2-6 in 30 minutes.

“We’re just inexperienced right now,” Marbrey said of the offensive collapse. “So sometimes when it gets down the stretch, we need to slow it down sometimes and execute.”

Connecticut heads to Atlanta Sunday at 3 p.m. while Minnesota visits Seattle Tuesday.

Golden State Tops Los Angeles

The Valkyries’ rookie duo of Carla Leite and Janelle Salaun scored 19 and 18 points, respectively, the former off the bench shooting 7-10 while the latter was 4-8 from deep and grabbed eight boards in sending the Sparks (1-3) to their third straight loss since beating Golden State (2-1) on opening night in San Francisco.

They are both French basketball players, Salaun a member of the French squad that lost by a point to the United States in the Olympic gold medal game in Paris. She signed a training camp contract with the new WNBA team last winter. Leite went ninth overall in the 2024 draft to Dallas but chose to remain in France and came from the Wings in the expansion draft by the Valkyries.

In Friday’s win, Kayla Thornton double doubled with 14 points and 10 boards, while Veronica Burton scored 12 before a crowd of 10,857 in Crypto.com Arena, formerly the Staples center.

Los Angeles’ Dearica Hamby scored 25 points, All-Star Kelsey Plum, previously in Las Vegas before an offseason swap, scored 16, Odyssey Sims scored 13, and Azura Stevens grabbed 10 boards.

Golden State was up 73-58 after Thornton scored with 6:43 left in regulation but Plum with a score from deep and Hamby with five points in a 10-0 run before Thornton applied the breaks with three from the line to keep the visitors ahead 76-68 with 1:33 on the clock.

Los Angeles led early by nine with 2:11 left in the first quarter before going cold with 15 straight blanks from the field along with six turnovers enabling Golden State to go on a 26-1

run ending with former Harvard star Temi Fagbenle’s layup for a 42-26 lead with 2:59 left before the break.

The Valkryies were coming off a narrow 76-74 inaugural win over Washington (2-2) before making their first road stop in Los Angeles on a trip that now heads East Tuesday and Thursday in Brooklyn to play New York in the Barclays Center.

The Sparks host Chicago Sunday, the Sky (0-2) looking for their first win after setting a league mark with a 60-point deficit across their first two games.

Las Vegas Overcomes Washington

It was a surprise when the young Mystics squad won their first two games, edging Atlanta in Washington in the season opener and then winning in Connecticut.

But the squad, which didn’t miss much to match Minnesota’s 4-0 start, are now 2-2 after fading to a 75-72 loss at Las Vegas (2-1).

Jackie Young scored 25 for the winning Aces with Jewell Loyd snapping a deadlock from the corner to connect on a 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left in regulation.

A’ja Wilson scored 15 with 10 boards, five assists, and three blocks, the three rejections moving the former South Carolina national player of the year into 10th place in the WNBA with 447 career blocks.

Chelsea Gray added 17.

It was a second-straight tough finish for Washington.

Young scored off a stolen pass in front of Las Vegas forcing a shot clock violation and on the ensuing possession Wilson found young for two inside and a 72-72 tie with 11.1 left in regulation.

Then Kiah Stokes blocked a shot, grabbed the rebound leading to Wilson feeding Loyd for the winning score on a night the former Notre Dame star struggled 2-9 from the field and 2-7 on attempts from deep.

Earlier another former Fighting Irish, Sonia Citron, going in the first round last month to Washington, completed a three-point play to put the Mystics up nine with 3:49 left in regulation.

Then the home team in front of a crowd of 10,509 in the Michelob ULTRA Arena moved within a bucket when Young countered with two from the line and one from the field while Dana Evan connected from deep with 2:02 on the clock.

Citron, who scored 19 helped by four 3-pointers, struck back from beyond the arc followed by Jade Melbourne 1-2 from the line for a 72-66 Mystics lead with 1:15 left.

Kiki Iriafen, fourth overall last month out of Southern Cal and previously at Stanford, had 17 points and 13 boards, the first rookie in Washington history to double-double in three straight games.

Lucy Olsen, the 23rd overall pick out of Iowa and previously Villanova, played 16 minutes off the bench scoring four points and grabbing five boards for Washington.

Seattle Hands Phoenix First Loss as Diggins Ties Storm Record With 14 Assists

Skylar Diggins, part of the rookie “Three to See” campaign when she was second overall out of Notre Dame coming into the league with Brittney Griner (1) and Elena Delle Donne (3), scored 24 points and  dealt a career-high 14 assists as the Storm (2-1) avenged last week’s blowout in Phoenix (2-1) beating the Mercury 77-70 before a crowd of 9,091 in Climate Pledge Arena for the home opener.

Nnenka Ogwumike tied her teammate with 24 and the former Stanford star grabbed eight boards. Gabby Williams, the UConn star with the French Olympic team last summer, scored 11 with three connections from deep.

Mercury newcomers in the offseason in Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally scored 16 points and 15 respectfully with Thomas, the former Maryland star out of Harrisburg grabbing 11 boards while Sabally, who  shined at Oregon, grabbed nine boards.

Rookie Monique Akoa Makani was also in double figures for Phoenix with a career-high 14 points, shooting 5-9 from the field.

Thomas’ 82nd double-double moved her 10th on the WNBA  career list eclipsing the retired Rebekkah Brunson.

Makani brought the Mercury to a 70-70 deadlock with 4:46 left in regulation with a layup and pair of 3-pointers. But then Phoenix went cold the rest of the way, the second dry spell after the break, running into a pair of blocks from Diggins and Ogwumike while also yielding a pair of turnovers.

Diggins started the 7-0 run to the finish with a jump shot and Ogwumike scored inside followed by Diggins’ score from the line with 28 seconds left on the clock.

Phoenix had been ahead 61-54 late in the third quarter but hit the Mercury’s initial dry spell of the half lasting eight minutes on a futile 0-10 from the field.

Seattle scored 12 straight but only held a four-point lead.

The Mercury host Washington Sunday as the Mystics end their four-game swing, while Seattle will host Las Vegas.

On Saturday, Indiana with Caitlin Clark hosts New York at 1 p.m. on CBS while Dallas then visits Atlanta at 3 p.m. on CBSSN.

 

 

 

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