The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Chicago Downs Dallas For a Two-Game Sweep of the Wings Who Missed No. 1 Pick Paige Bueckers With a Concussion

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Saturday’s WNBA card had just one game in which Chicago (2-4) completed a two-game sweep over three days against Dallas (1-6) following Thursday’s win over the Wings in the Windy City and then again beating them 94-83 on the campus of Texas-Arlington at College Park Center before a crowd of 6,251.

Dallas was without overall No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers out of UConn who Friday was placed in the concussion protocol, the team said of the injury occurring in the loss the previous day to the Sky.

That results in the last two WNBA overall No. 1 draft picks on the sidelines with Indiana’s Caitlin Clark having missed two of a predicted minimum four games, the Fever losing both of them.

In Saturday’s game, Chicago’s Ariel Atkins scored 26, shooting 8-14 from the field, including 4-8 from deep, while grabbing four rebounds.

Courtney Vandersloot was not far off a triple double with 15 points, seven boards and seven assists, while Kia Nurse collected 11 points.

Angel Reese had 14 points and nine rebounds.

“I think we’re getting more chemistry as a team,” Atkins said afterwards of the sweep. “As you see, as we get more comfortable with each other we see where our shots are coming from, as our team chemistry is getting better, we’re learning how to play well together.

“I liked how we communicated better tonight.”

The Wings were led by NaLyssa Smith with 20 points, while DiJonai Carrington, formerly with the Connecticut Sun, scored 16 and Notre Dame standout Arike Ogwumike scored 15, but on 5-of-16 from the field.

Starting in place of Bueckers and scoring 11 points for Dallas was former Villanova star Maddy Siegrist, who went third overall in the 2023 draft after becoming the Philadelphia area’s highest women’s collegiate scorer and second overall combined with men’s players from schools in the City of Brotherly Love.

Kaila Charles also scored 11 points.

Chicago had lost its first four games before snapping the skid on Thursday for its first win, while Dallas dispensed with its season-opening losing streak the previous game.

Both teams spent a lot of time in the game Saturday on the line combing to shot 51-of-65 free throws, Chicago connecting on 26.

“I thought our bench was great, 24 points, they gave us great defensive minutes,” said Chicago first-year coach Tyler Marsh. “Everyone who played today was great. It was a total team effort tonight.”

Chicago is off until June 7, hosting Indiana in a Saturday night game on CBS that was moved from Wintrust Arena to the NBA Bull’s United Center, an action consistent with teams taking advantage of larger capacity seating venues when Clark comes to town with the Fever, though the former Iowa star and all-time NCAA leading scorer will still be sidelined.

Prior to Clark’s injury that contest loomed as the most watched WNBA game in the 29-year history of the league dating to 1997.

Two days after Indiana announced Clark’s injury Washington on Wednesday was the first to be affected by having had made a move to a larger arena in a game without Clark on the court.

The Mystics, who play at home in a tiny CareFirst arena in Southeast Washington across the Potomac River from downtown, when building their home schedule were unable to use the larger NBA Wizard’s Capital One Arena, which is undergoing renovations.

So, the game, the first of two involving Indiana visits, the next in September, was moved up the road to Baltimore and the CFG Bank Arena where a crowd of near capacity at 11,000 still showed up.

Many, who came, got a reward for still showing, getting a chance in the pre-game to have Clark sign autographs and take selfies with them for a period about 12 minutes.

While Chicago is off for a week, Dallas is off until visiting Seattle Tuesday at the Climate Pledge Arena at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN.

Starting Sunday with a four-game slate, the next two weeks hold the Commissioner’s Cup series as part of the increased 44-game schedule in which intra-geographical home-and-home games will occur. The two emerging teams out of the Cup standings will meet July 1 with the team with the better record serving as the host.

Sunday’s four games involve the last two teams yet to lose with the defending champion New York Liberty (6-0) hosting the Connecticut Sun (1-5) at 3 p.m. in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, while the runner up Minnesota Lynx (6-0) visit the expansion Golden State Valkyries (2-3) at 8:30 p.m. in the Chase Center in San Francisco.

The New York start is the best in the team’s 29-year-history.

The Phoenix Mercury (4-2), who narrowly almost upset Minnesota on Friday, visit the Los Angeles Sparks (2-5) at the Crypto.com Arena, formerly Staples Center, at 6 p.m., while the Las Vegas Aces (3-2) visit the Seattle Storm (3-3) at the Climate Pledge Arena.

All four games will air on the WNBA streaming League Pass platform.

The league is dark Monday, while on Tuesday Washington (3-4) tries to even the series at Indiana (2-4) at Gainbridge Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. in Indianapolis on NBA TV.

Phoenix is at Minnesota Tuesday at the Target Center in Minneapolis at 9 p.m. on ESPN3, and as mentioned Dallas visits Seattle at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN.

On Thursday, New York returns to Washington’s CareFirst Arena at 7:30 p.m. on Amazon’s Prime Video while Golden State on the same viewing platform visits Phoenix at 10 p.m.

The doubleheader Friday night on ION and League Pass has the Atlanta Dream (5-2) visiting Connecticut at 7:30 p.m. at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, while Los Angeles is at Dallas at 9:30 p.m.

Besides the Chicago-Indiana game on Saturday, Las Vegas is at Golden State at 3 p.m. on ABC/ESPN+, and Seattle is at Phoenix at 10 p.m. on League Pass.