The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: New York Rallies and Foils Indiana’s Upset on Ionescu’s Two Foul Shots While Atlanta Keeps Dallas Winless

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

The defending WNBA champion New York Liberty (3-0) foiled an upset bid by Indiana (2-2) and Caitlin Clark in a controversial finish Saturday afternoon at the Fever’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis winning 90-88 to keep pace with Minnesota 4-0 as the only two teams still in the unbeaten column.

In the only other game played, Atlanta (2-2) downed visiting Dallas 83-75, the Wings (0-4) with overall No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers still after their first win in the young season.

The Liberty-Fever game, airing nationally on CBS in front of another 17,274 sellout, was an entertaining encounter with 14 lead changes and featuring an Indiana 30-13 surging comeback in the third quarter for a 76-68 lead only to yield a counter 22-12 rally the rest of the way to New York.

The Fever were able go up 80-68 early in the fourth quarter before their slide began in a meeting Clark, the reigning rookie of the year, ahead of the opening tip had labelled a gauge for Indiana, which bounced back after the Olympic break last season to make the playoffs only to be ousted 2-0 in the opening series to the Connecticut Sun.

On Saturday the outcome came down to the last few ticks in regulation.

Sabrina Ionescu was fouled by Indiana newcomer Sophie Cunningham from the Phoenix Mercury and made both from the line with 2.9 seconds left to snap the deadlock.

Then Clark, who had been in a long-range scoring slump before scoring two Saturday, had the ball knocked away by the Liberty’s Natasha Cloud, the native of Broomall, Pa., who graduated from Cardinal O’Hara and Saint Joseph’s and played a season at Maryland.

Clark, the graduate of Iowa who became the all-time NCAA scorer and was the No. 1 draft pick a year ago, was miffed at the no-call, attempting to discuss the action with the official as the contest concluded.

A week ago, in which Clark had her third career triple double in the season-opening rout of Chicago, she was part of controversy in fouling Sky rival Angel Reese with the official upgrading the penalty to a Flagrant 1.

Saturday, Clark had a dubious triple double scoring 18 points, dealing 10 points, but also committing 10 turnovers.

Aliyah Boston, who helped Clark’s assist total as the top Fever scorer with 27 points to go with 13 rebounds, bounced back from her low scoring total of four in the win Thursday at Atlanta that avenged a narrow home loss to the Dream two days earlier in Indianapolis.

Kelsey Mitchell and Lexie Hull, who started in place of Dwanna Bonner, each scored 15, while Bonner managed just two foul shots in 23 minutes.

For the winning Liberty, who set a league regular season record with 19 3-pointers Thursday in Chicago, Jonquel Jones scored 26, Ionescu had her best game to date with 23 points, while Cloud continued to be energy maker in the backcourt, matching teammate Breanna Stewart with 16 points and seven boards, but also dealing six assists.

In the offseason Indiana made a bunch of changes behind Clark bringing back Stephanie White, who had coached the Connecticut Sun after guiding the Fever to a title in her first tour of duty, and signing Natasha Howard, Bonner and Cunningham in free agency.

The moves, including several in the front office, in 12 months changed the Fever from targeting the playoffs to setting their sights on the top of the league.

Clark, in frustration with the no-call and Fever 2-2 start, said, “We are two possessions away from being 4-0 and a possession away from beating the Liberty here.

“It definitely stings, but this is what’s gonna make us better at the end of the year.”

Besides acknowledging the team’s letdown, White thinks her players are not getting their fare shake from the crew in stripes and said as much without fear of a league fine for public criticism.

Besides saying she believed Cloud fouled Clark, she continued, “I think it’s pretty egregious what’s been happening to us the last few games.

“A minus-31 free-throw discrepancy and I might be able to understand it if we were just chucking threes, but we’re not. We’re attacking the rim, and the disrespect right now for our team has been pretty unbelievable.”

New York this week hosts the expansion Golden State Valkyries in a pair of games Tuesday and Thursday at home in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Indiana next visits Washington on Wednesday, the game being moved by the Mystics to nearby Baltimore and the larger CFG Bank Arena at 7:30 p.m.

Atlanta Handles Dallas

The Dream evened their start at 2-2 in keeping the Wings (0-4) out of the victory column.

Alisha Gray scored 27 while free-agent signee Brionna Jones had 11 points and 15 boards besides another high value free agent newcomer Brittney Griner from Phoenix collected 15 points.

Additionally, Rhyne Howard dealt 10 assists.

Atlanta gained control just before the halftime break and never was seriously threatened by Dallas the rest of the way though the Wings launched a 15-2 run midway through the fourth quarter.

The visitors’ last lead was secured at 26-24 by former Villanova star Maddy Siegrist, who had 12 points, with 4:31 left in the second period. The all-time Wildcat scorer, drafted third overall in 2023, finished behind NaLyssa Smith, who scored 13.

Bueckers had 11 while off the bench reserves Tyasha Harris and Teaira McCowan each scored 10 points.

Atlanta is at Los Angeles Tuesday while Dallas is at Connecticut, the first return of Bueckers to the state of her collegiate career since finishing at UConn last month, leading the Huskies to their 12th national title.

On Sunday, all four games are on league pass, the WNBA’s streaming platform, Connecticut first visiting Atlanta at 3 p.m., ahead of hosting Dallas. Chicago (0-2) is at Los Angeles (1-3), Washington (2-2) is at Phoenix (2-1), and Las Vegas (2-1) is at Seattle (2-1). A;; tipping at 6 p.m.